


This is where it starts

by cottonscent



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: (hint: but not really), Adulting is difficult, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Art student Will, Bisexual Mike Wheeler, Bowl cut Jesus, But he's working on it, Character Development, Character Study, Childhood Memories, Coming of Age, Dungeons & Dragons References, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Mike Wheeler Friendship, Emotional Roller Coaster, Eventual Sex, Everyone Is Alive, Everything is sneaky, Family Bonding, Fantasy themes, Fluff and Angst, Gay Will Byers, Good Friend Lucas Sinclair, Good Sibling Nancy Wheeler, Hang in there for Byler, Hawkins (Stranger Things), Hawkins sort of sucks, Healing, Holly Wheeler goes missing, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Inspired by D&D, Jealous Mike Wheeler, Just college life tbh, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Mike Wheeer is struggling, Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers, Mike has stuff to work on, Mike is closeted, Mike-Centric, Minor Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Multi, New Yorker Lucas, Nostalgia, One-Sided Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Past Abuse, Past Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Period-Typical Homophobia, Reunions, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Road Trip, Self-Discovery, Self-loathing deluxe, Siblings Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Third dimension, Versatile Mike Wheeler, Weird Plot Shit, Wheeler siblings, Will Byers Has Powers, Will creates things, Will is happier now, Will is out, Will is sneaky af, Yale student Dustin, and lots of mystery solving, humans are interesting, poc characters, slow burn is really slow, some violence, time is scary, trying to adult
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:27:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 148,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23170240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottonscent/pseuds/cottonscent
Summary: By the time Mike realized he had feelings for Will, it was already too late, but the biggest problem is that Will has gone missing again and nobody understands why or how. The party, who are now college students, reunite to search for him. The search doesn't seem to bring them any closer to Will, and they are running out of time. In the meanwhile Holly Wheeler goes missing too. Everyone fears the worst - that the gate has opened again - but what they don't know is that Will is no longer a helpless victim of the Upside Down.While the rest of the party moved on and forgot once the gate closed Will kept exploring, and the connection he formed to the other dimension it actually a lot more complex than what they originally thought.
Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/oc (minor)
Comments: 66
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> Take note: The characters are aged up in this!
> 
> Guess who's back with a Byler multi-chapter work? I haven't split it into chapters yet so I don't know exactly how many there will be, but it's 100 000+ words already so we'll see where it will end at. I hope you'll like it. It's a bit different from my other ST-fic but I guess it's still my writing (is that even a good thing?? idk) so probably it has a similar vibe, I guess. I will say though - this one is more mature. I'll add more tags eventually.
> 
> Also, I'm not American. I keep pointing this out simply because I'm sure there are cultural points that aren't entirely accurate, just like the landscape descriptions, but I've tried to do some research at least. I know that Dustin's yale-kid habits aren't actual yale-kid habits, Mike only assumes they are. And most locations are entirely fictional, including Will's university. I don't know why I feel the need to tell you this disclaimer, it's just a stupid fanfic, but I'm sort of self-conscious about the mistakes.
> 
> And I'm only using D&D for references and inspiration. I learned some basics, but I don't actually understand the game and how it's played.
> 
> Kudos and comments are very appreciated, it's make me more motivated to keep improving and writing. I really want to write a full novel one day, an actual book, so I've added some original characters to support the main cast and the plot for practice. If you don't like OCs, I hope they won't bother too much.
> 
> Also, this is super slow. Just a warning. But I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. Byler is waiting for you further ahead.
> 
> Thank you for reading! c:

In retrospect Mike knew he couldn’t had done better simply because he didn’t know better, and yet a merciless feeling of guilt and remorsefulness afflicted him every time he thought about it. Of course, it wasn’t his fault that Will disappeared, he never plotted a kidnapping or anything alike - in fact he spent the evening being anxious for other reasons without noticing a single insinuation of what was to happen to Will - but perhaps that innocent obliviousness was the very reason why he felt so guilty, because no matter how one looked at the matter it was clear that if Mike had known better, Will would still be around.

Knowing the details of why Will left wasn’t the important point, what mattered was that it had been two weeks already since he vanished. For every day that passed, their chances waned. He survived a week last time, with a very scarce margin. Sure, he was older and stronger, nowhere near as scrawny as he used to be, but when facing the monsters from the other dimension he was still nothing but a human boy, defenseless and inexperienced.

Posters were stuck to street lights and information boards everywhere in Hawkins, but also in other places. Everyone had really made an effort, calling police stations all around the country, pleading them to spread the word about Will’s disappearance and asking everyone they knew to help them spreading the posters. None of the teachers at his university in North Carolina had received any information regarding Will.

His classmates were as confused, but they were surely not as worried as Mike and the party. (”Perhaps he needed to leave to get some new inspiration? Art students do it all the time, it’s not a big deal, it’s a part of the craft. It’s strange that he didn’t tell anyone, but I wouldn’t worry if I were you. Last year we had a guy who went missing for a whole month. He was found smoking pot with some hippies in the woods. I’m sure Will’s fine.”)

They clearly didn’t know much about Will’s past.

The picture was taken just weeks prior. Will smiled brightly, his hair a little tousled as it usually was these days, direct sunlight hitting his face, enhancing all the new angles and creating shadows that weren’t there on the last poster. Below the picture it said: ”William Byers is missing!”, followed by essential information about him — his height, weight, eye color, hair color, what he wore that night and where to call with tips regarding his whereabouts.

”I can’t believe this,” was the most common phrase throughout the past two weeks. It was said by everyone but never to anyone, just puzzled and distracted mumbles, as to summarize the profound state of confusion and terror, which were too great to even translate into words.

The poster sparked a lot of emotions at once. Mike cried the first time he saw them and nobody could console him because they were too shaken as well. It was nostalgic to the point where it came across as surreal to actually hold the posters in his hands, as if the sight was a dream that had slumbered in the back of his mind for years and suddenly it resurfaced, and along with it everything else that they had been through.

That night in November when it all started seemed so long ago, enough had passed since, that the thought of what happened felt so distant that for a moment one could believe that it never even happened at all. The memory of the first encounter with the Upside Down had been overshadowed by the striking experiences of being young — friendship, independence, self-discovery, rebellion, laughter, love and heartbreak — which, along with the youthful sense of immortality and infinity, managed to push the brutal reality of what happened in 1983 back into a corner, but not enough to make it undone. Will almost died that fall. The immortality was just an illusion all along and now it felt as if everything that had happened whilst ignoring this reality was just as unreal.

Lucas, who working in New York these days, had taped the posters in all the central, crowded, areas he could think of, hoping that as many as possible would take notice and contact them. Max had done the same in Ohio and Dustin had talked to the professors at Yale to elicit as much knowledge as possible that could potentially help them. Jane tried her best to find him but it seems like her efforts were in vain. Her powers were gone. They never made a revival after the battle at Starcourt Mall, and just like with everything else, the memory of the powers had drifted to a forlorn part of everyone’s consciousness.

”I lost them.” Jane had said it impassively, as if those words didn’t mean anything. She said it again and again, and Mike didn’t understand the point of doing so, but he let her repeat that same sentence and he watched her face transform from blank to enlighten to devastated and then blank again. Then she looked at him and with the smallest, not the slightest happy, smile, she said: ”I forgot I even had them, Mike. How could I forget about that?”

They received a call from a police office in Montana four days after Will’s vanishing. Mrs Byers face lit up in delight when the phone rang. She put the phone on speaker and put it on the table so everyone could hear. Mike clenched his jaw so tightly it hurt and he didn’t even dare to breath when the cop started talking. 

”We have a boy here. He’s twenty-two years old, doesn’t tell us much else. Short hair, dark brown color. I think he could be around five feet nine, like your son, correct? He has a nose piercing. Seems to be one of those edgy kids who are really into Nirvana and all of that, you know what I mean? Does it sound like your son Will?”

The cop spoke with a bland, drawly voice. He seemed to be eating something in between the sentences and the sound of his chewing was repulsive when it passed through the phone’s speaker. Mike was disappointed already, but the sight of Joyce Byers’ face as the beam of hope gradually washed off was enough to break anyone’s heart.

”I’m… I’m afraid that’s not my Will, sir.”

”No? I think he fits the description quite well actually, if you just take into consideration that kids can change their style. Doesn’t take much too to turn a blondie into a brownie, if you know what I mean? Some hairdye and scissors will do the trick, you know? And the piercing can be done in a minute, take my words for that! You see, my son came home the other day with his ears for of metal junk! I couldn’t believe it! My son!” The cop chortled at the other end of the line.

Joyce looked up at everyone around the table with an uncertain look. Without saying the words out loud, her mouth formed the question: ”Do you think Will would do that?”, to which everyone agreed that it seemed unlikely. Unlikely, however, did not mean impossible. For this reason Mrs Byers kept talking to the cop and asked him more questions, received vague answers and in the end, after overhearing the boy’s voice asking the cop when he was allowed to leave, she concluded that it was definitely not Will.

This was expected and all their efforts were useless, they knew that already. Not even the experts at Yale could wrap their heads around this case, no more than the police could or the thousands of people passing by the posters at times square. The kids who fought in Hawkins 1985 were the only ones who possessed any knowledge regarding the Upside Down, and what they knew was still meager in comparison to the vastness of a second dimension’s existence.

Mike had to turn his face away every time he passed the posters. Sometimes he could go an hour or two without thinking about the fact that Will was last seen with him — April 6th 1994 — at a cheap restaurant not too far away from the university in Bloomington, Indiana, and it was technically his fault that Will was gone because he was being so heedless.

Why did he have to say those things? Mike wished that he could have blamed it on something, alcohol, peer pressure, drugs or whatever, but he couldn’t. He was perfectly sober, they were just chatting and having a good time together, catching up on what had happened since they last saw one another and everything was so great already — so why did he have to ruin everything by saying anything? If he had never said it, Will would have stayed and he would be safe at this moment, but those were things Mike had no clue about at the time, of course.

At the time, when they sat there at the restaurant and the salon was full of people and an ebullient spirit pervaded throughout and the food was alright but not brilliant and the music playing was nice but a bit too loud, and the spring was budding outside and the air was lukewarm and lovely and everything felt as good as it could ever get, Mike just couldn’t help himself. It all seemed so perfect that somewhere in his guts he sensed a feeling, a feeling which afflicted him with the realization that this was the right moment and no other moment will be as right as this. He never knew that Will was going to react the way he did, he never knew that the Upside Down’s horrors lurked outside the venue.

”I’m so inspired these days! It’s crazy! Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I just get this urge to go outside and draw something and I love that every time I go anywhere, I’ll see new things. New places, new people, new shapes and colors! It’s brilliant. I feel like my art has really improved since moving away.”

Will gestured wildly with his hands as he spoke and his eyes abounded with excitement. He almost forgot to eat because he had so much to tell and Mike leaned into the palm of his hand and just soaked up in all of this. Seeing Will so happy made him feel almost ecstatic, it was just too good to be true and holy shit how he loved this man and then he just said it, without really thinking:

”I really like you, Will — ” extended pause ” — I have for a while. I thought I’d get over it but here you are and… wow. Sorry, I just had to say it!” Mike chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. He stirred his milkshake and didn’t dare to meet Will’s eyes. He wanted to keep it simple and casual, not make a big scene or anything, but inside he was fizzy and the electricity could be sensed all the way out to his finger tips while he waited for a reaction.

Will was staring at him, clammed up and wide-eyed like a doe and impossibly pretty despite his attempts to be hot. He was evidently beyond words. He opened his mouth to say something, shut it again. Then he started laughing and shook his head slowly, as if in disbelief. It was a happy laughter, warm and genuine, but also confused.

”I mean it, you know? I really like you. And not as in ’you’re my best friend’ or anything, no, I mean as in I like-like you,” Mike continued. He sipped some milkshake through the straw, an amused grin on his lips, and this playful flirting came so naturally he couldn’t even believe it himself. ”I’m happy for you, that you’ve found something that makes you feel inspired and amazing. You totally deserve it. Hawkins was never enough for you, you’re too good for that shithole, that’s just the truth.”

”Wait —” Will stopped and just shook his head again, confused hands waving around in the air as if they were searching for the right words, as if the words floated in the air. He leaned back against the seat and turned his face towards the window on his right, arms crossed over his chest. For a moment it looked like he had settled for not saying anything at all.

”Look, I’m sorry if this is sudden, Will. I just… —” His cheeks were now burning and the euphoria dwindled under the uncertainty and awkwardness. Reality was interfering and for every passing second the realization of what he had just said came crashing down upon him. Mike leaned forward on the table, rubbed his face with both hands and started: ”Hey, let’s just forget I said —”

”You know that I used to like you a lot, don’t you?” Will interrupted. His voice was strained and the intensity of his gaze was piercing.

”I suspected it, I guess.” Mike swallowed.

He started stirring the milkshake again, hands fidgety and sweaty. It was just a liquid soup of melted ice cream left at the bottom and unfortunately he had already finished his ribs. He had no idea where to put his hands, what to do with himself at this point. What was an idyllic setting for a love confession a minute ago was now the ruins of the peace that used to be. The empty plates, the sad little french fries left at the bottom of the basket, the half-finished coke bottle amid the already finished ones. This was the scenery of a disaster and Mike could feel it all the way into his bones.

Will’s response was taking way too long, but then he sighed hopelessly and the tautness vanished after that. He looked at Mike with conflicted, almost woeful eyes, but most importantly they were frail.

”Wow,” he said vacantly, ”Didn’t see this coming.”

”I’m sorry.”

”I spent years trying to get over you, Mike!” Will was getting worked up, he almost looked like he was about to burst, but he remained collected, he held it back and perhaps that’s why it was so painful to watch. ”Every time I thought I was past it, you did something that pulled me back in. You refused to let me be with you but you also refused to let me go. You ran off with El all the time, ditched me completely — but then you suddenly gave me one of those looks, you know which ones I’m talking about because you can’t tell me those were just friendly, and you did all those things that made me think I had a chance — and then you ditched me again!”

Mike bit his lip, damned himself for bringing it up, damned himself for his ways and how he hurt Will in the past - because he knew very well that he did. He was aware, he knew, but he also knew that Will would never confront him with this. This may, to the waitress collecting dishes and to the other costumers in the restaurant, have seemed like a confrontation but it wasn’t. Will expressed his frustration in a blunt way, but he wouldn’t hold Mike accountable for what he did. He’d forgive Mike. He always did. And this made Mike feel even worse because it was so awfully apparent how Will deserved someone better than himself.

”I’m sorry.”

Mike didn’t know what else to say. He let his hands fall onto the table with a limp thud. He shook his head and swallowed again. He’d never forgive himself if he started crying now because he knew that Will would console him and say that it was okay, when it clearly wasn’t okay and the one who should be consoled was Will.

”Mike, I’m glad that you told me. And don’t get me wrong, I still like you a lot. But the thing is that time has passed and —” Will threw his head back in frustration before turning back to Mike, leaning on the table ”— I’ve moved on. I have finally, after all this time, moved on. I know that I could fall for you again, it wouldn’t take much, I know that, but the thing is that I don’t want to get hurt again so please don’t make me.”

”Will, I swear, I’m more mature now than how I was back then. We were so young, didn’t understand the meaning of feelings and we only dated around because it was cool or whatever — I would never do that now!” Mike pleaded. ”So I understand if you don’t want to fall for me again, I respect that, you have every right in the world to be careful, but I just want you to know that I’m different now.”

Will smiled a crooked smile — a pitying smile — that Mike had never seen before. It was unfamiliar and odd, didn’t really suit his face and Mike even winced back when realizing that the smile was addressed to him personally. Before he had even said anything, Will clicked with his tongue, took a deep breath and said, in the softest, kindest voice:

”I’ve met someone, Mike. He’s a great guy. I’m happy with him. I wish I didn’t have to tell you like this.”

Mike’s posture deflated all at once, as if he lost his spine and his muscles became useless lumps of flesh. He blinked a couple of times, dumbly. Will looked down at his lap, desolately and helplessly. Then he looked up again, their eyes met, and Mike knew that Will’s words meant nothing, this ’someone’ meant nothing. Those eyes didn’t reject him, didn’t push him away, if anything they pulled him in and begged him to stay, and perhaps that was the very reason why Will pushed his chair back and got on his feet.

”I think I need some space to think, Mike, I’m sorry,” he said.

And so he grabbed his jacket that hung over the back of the chair, dug out enough money to pay for both of their meals, placed it on the table, smiled sweetly, wished Mike all the best, promised that he’d give him a call soon and walked away. Mike watched him disappear through the door, his back and his tousled hair being the last thing he saw, and after that Will vanished. Nobody at campus had seen him that night, he had not been spotted in Hawkins (where he initially had intended to go after visiting Mike), nobody from his college knew anything about his whereabouts and two weeks later he was still as gone.

Now, Will Byers was known for being a bit secretive. He had plenty of secrets, some more vital than others. He had also learned a whole bunch of things on his own while the rest were occupied with their studies, relationship and ambitions, things that were far beyond the mundane reality that most people his age knew.

The fact that he had found a new gate to another dimension was one thing. The fact that he was the very creator of that dimension was the other.


	2. Chapter 2

”The gate used to be somewhere around here,” Jonathan told them.

He stretched his arms out and gestured in a ratio around them. All the trees looked the same and to think that he’d actually be able to point out exactly where the gate had been last time was simply too optimistic, but the lack of visible remains from the disastrous events that took place around here was strange. It was as though the nature had healed itself, erased every trace from what once happened. The trees allowed damage caused by lumberjacks, animals and seasonal conditions to leave permanent marks so one could read the trees and find out the history of the woodlands, but the fact that there was once an inter-dimensional gate nobody would ever find out about. Some part of Mike wished that there was a mark left behind, something concise that proved that it actually did happen, it wasn’t a dream. The other part was delighted that Hawkins wasn’t full of horrifying reminders everywhere, that despite everything they had been able to move on at last.

Mike, Jane, mrs Byers, chief Hopper and Dustin trudged closely behind Jonathan. Mike had not put a foot in this forest since that summer of 1985. It was eerie to see the place in this bright daylight, so still and quiet. The only sign of life were the birds that circled around the tree tops, their singing just a complementary addition to the serenity of the woodlands. This was not how he remembered it.

”Well, if there were any traces left behind the gate, we’d surely see it. I don’t think you can miss a gate. There was a special aura around the gate last time, right? Even if we can’t see it, we’d sense it if it was actually here,” Dustin reasoned.

”But we closed the gate so of course there wouldn’t be a gate here now.” Jane said this as though it was a solid fact, putting emphasis on every syllable. She picked a branch off the ground and started aimlessly swaying it around in the air. She sighed, shook her head slowly from side to side. In an almost pleading way she whined: ”I have no idea what is happening right now.”

She received no response to this. What was there to say? Nobody else knew what was happening any better than she did. The gate closed, that much seemed clear and it seemed to had been the truth for several years now. Mike rubbed his face. It was tempting to just dunk his head against a tree, but what good would come out of that?

”But how could the guy magically transport himself from the restaurant to Hawkins, just like that? It’s physically impossible! I think we’re looking at the wrong place! If there is a gate, it’s gotta be somewhere closer to the restaurant, somewhere near the university,” Hopper frowned as he lit a cigarette. He took a drag and blew out the smoke. His hand mechanically moved, bringing the cigarette back to his lips and then crossing his arms over his belly, then back to his lips again. His eyes stared absently into the air in front of him and he didn’t move anything but his hand for several minutes, looking like a callous statue more than anything, sort of pale and lifeless.

”Do you think he’s hiding?” Jonathan kicked at a stick on the ground, head hanging low. ”I mean, what if he doesn’t want to be found?”

Mike felt his guts sink. It wasn’t just a metaphorical feeling, it was physical as well. He suddenly felt awfully heavy and it took all his self-control to not fall to the ground like a dead weight. He took a deep breath and stared into the endlessness of the forest. The view of trees, the moss, the fallen logs expanded so far that it was difficult for the eye to grasp any sense of perspective, or perhaps that impression was just in Mike’s mind because he was afflicted by a wrenching vertigo.

”Mike?” Dustin called. ”What do you think?”

He showed up by Mike’s side, looked at him with those knowledgable eyes, his face appearing to be much older than twenty-three. Dustin’s shrewdness had always been admirable, but there were few times when Mike felt as vulnerable and exposed as when Dustin looked at him like that, as if he was under scrutiny — especially so when Mike knew that he actually had information that he refused to tell anyone. Dustin was the type who could see right through it. It was frankly intimidating.

”We’ve talked about this so many times already. I don’t see why he’d hide from us, especially not when he most certainly know that we’d go looking for him and worry to death,” Mike said, a helpless hand waving in the air. He turned away from Dustin, pretended to investigate the moss on the ground. He poked at it with his shoe. Squeeze, squeeze. Dustin rolled his eyes.

”Well, all of this is useless really, in that case,” he muttered. He made his way over to the tree that Jonathan was investigating, leaning in close to take a look at the bark. He was soon rambling about the characteristics of wood, how the wood would look if once damaged and how to tell if a tree had been affected by radiation in the past. This appeared to cheer him up a little, for a moment it seemed like he was onto something, like he knew what he was doing, but then the bleak expression returned to his face. He itched his scalp. ”I mean, those are logical things, straight facts and all of that, but I suppose the Upside Down’s logic isn’t what we’re taught in school. So, like I said, this is useless.”

”But we can’t just give up!” Joyce’s voice was shrill. She stomped with her foot on the ground, snapping a stick. She was holding up well, but the past two weeks had aged her as much as ten years normally would. She was tired and frail, her hair hung lifelessly and her eyes looked sunken and gloomy even when she smiled. She hit a stem with a closed fist. ”We have to keep trying!”

”We have to think of something new, something out of the box. The Upside Down is irrational and therefor we must think irrationally to find it, right?” Jonathan said, nodding.

Thinking outside the box was easy when they were twelve, but they were not twelve anymore. It was harder to think of anything without letting the adult side of their brains determine whether the thought was allowed or not, because nonsense wasn’t acceptable nowadays and the profound consciousness of other people’s opinions pestered in the back of their minds even when they didn’t realize it. Mike couldn’t remember when he last let his mind run in whichever direction it wanted without applying adult logic to it, and what scared him even more was the fact that he had not even noticed that this transition had occurred.

***

Mike, Dustin and Jane spent the afternoon in the basement. Mike’s bed had been moved from upstairs and placed in the basement instead, allowing Holly to move into his former bedroom. Mike didn’t mind, if anything he was happy about this because when he stayed in the basement he had more space and privacy. It almost felt like a studio apartment, just one open space with everything he needed — including a small fridge, which he had bought at an estate sale just recently.

The posters on the walls had been replaced one by one throughout the years. The pictures of superheroes had been phased out, so had the 80’s movies posters and the random stickers he used to collect. Even Will’s old drawings had been stored away in a folder, although some new ones — very professionally executed and tastefully clean — now hung on the walls instead, along with a bohemian tassel-thing (Mike wasn’t even sure exactly what it was), that a friend from school had bought him for his birthday after visiting her family in South Africa, and some post-cards.

Altogether the basement was much nicer now, but the scent of old wood, the dim light and the lack of windows gave it the same familiar aura. Nancy had gotten him a scented candle, but the ’seaside dream’ didn’t do much for masking the earthy smell, it only added another layer to it, which was very peculiar and gave Mike a throbbing headache. Mike didn’t mind though, he always felt at home in the attic-like space. At this point he was immune to what his parents referred to as ’cave-sickness’ (whatever that meant was very diffused, but the words were commonly spoken with concern or a disapproving frown). 

”I certainly did not expect this after all this time. I thought it was over for good.” Dustin slumped back against the couch cushions. He brought the soda can to his lips and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ”I don’t even understand how we managed last time. The more I think about it, the more I believe we survived by pure luck, coincidence, or something like that. Fate maybe?”

”I suppose so, yeah,” Mike said. He sat in the armchair, both feet off the ground, comfortably dangling over the armrest, his head hung over the other. ”Let’s just say I had other plans for this spring break than doing this shit again,” he chuckled sullenly, barely loud enough to be perceivable to anyone but himself.

”No, we fought.” Jane furrowed her brows. ”We fought very hard. If we didn’t put so much effort, we would all be dead already. Everyone did their best. It wasn’t luck or fate.”

She got off the couch and walked aimlessly around the room without saying anything more. If a stranger saw her, they’d never be able to guess that she was once a brutal powerhouse. Her face had softened with time, the vacant expression she used to display had grown livelier. Healthy waves of brown hair framed her face, draped over her shoulders and gave her a feminine touch even when she wore unflattering men’s shirts and combat boots.

She was still Jane — who else? — but it was hardly the same Jane that Mike found in the rainy woods that night, and that was maybe the reason why finding Will seemed like an impossible task this time. If Jane wasn’t Jane and the Party wasn’t the Party, and all of them were just average college students, how could they ever recreate the miracle that saved them last time?

”Why do you think Will got persecuted by the demogorgon in the first place? Was it just a coincidence that Will happened to pass by the gate?” Mike thought out loud. He stretched his arms above his head. ”I mean, heck, we fought a battle without ever actually understanding the true nature of it! It’s impressive, we were really kick-ass kids at the time, but we were clueless — just like we are now — and I just don’t know how the hell we’re supposed to fix it.”

”This time we have to dig deeper than we did back then. We can’t just wait around and hope for a miracle again,” Dustin sighed.

He put the can on the low table in front of him and proceeded to sprawl out on the couch. He closed his eyes as if going to sleep, although he was likely just pondering. He often closed his eyes when he was thinking these days, Mike suspected that it was a habit he picked up from the other Yale kids. Mike thought it looked a bit stupid when Dustin would just close his eyes mid-conversation, as though he was taking a quick nap, but Dustin was obviously the sharpest guy in the clique so he never dared to question it. He just stared up in the ceiling above, waiting for him to finish his genius thinking or whatever.

”We have to understand more,” Jane said. Mike turned his face to look at her and almost flinched back, because somewhere beneath the sight he had grown familiar with, he could swear that he saw a fierceness in her eyes that brought back immediate memories from the fall 1983.

”Yeah, no shit, but the question is: how are we supposed to do that?” Dustin opened his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and index finger. ”The whole problem here is that we know so little that we don’t even know where to start. The lab is abandoned, there is no gate in Hawkins, the Soviet Union is literally falling apart as we’re speaking so I doubt there’s any Russians involved this time and so far there have been no other reports regarding mysterious kidnappings or vanishing people — it’s just Will and he didn’t leave a single trace behind for us to follow, so where the hell do we start?”

”Maybe we have to go back to the very start?” Mike said, this time more coherently than before. This suggestion sounded crisp and clear and both Jane and Dustin appeared to snap out of the stupor. Dustin pushed himself up into a sitting position, eyes alert. Jane stopped pacing and turned her face towards Mike.

”Yes,” she said, first time quietly, then again in a louder tone, complemented by a series of approving nods and a finger in the air. ”Yes. Yes! Yes, that’s a good idea!”

”How do you mean?” Dustin asked. ”How do we do that in practice?”

”Well, if we could trick out minds into thinking in the same way that we used to when we were twelve, perhaps we’ll be able to find Will — just like we did when we were twelve,” Mike said and it sounded even better this time. ”I’m not sure if it will work, but right now we’re not getting anywhere, are we? We have to think outside the box, right? That’s what Jonathan said and I think he’s absolutely right. We need to stop being so rational. Let’s just play, let’s pretend that we’re kids again!”

***

”I can’t believe I’m leaving work to play D&D, what is this?” Lucas exclaimed theatrically, hands in the air. He didn’t sound bothered the slightest though, if anything he seemed relieved and he made himself at home in the basement without an inkling of regret. He sat down on the stairs where he’d usually sit, not even bothering coming all the way down. He used his bag as a backrest, leaning casually like he owned the place.

He had come from New York yesterday evening after Mike had called him and asked him to join them in Hawkins instead. Last time Mike saw him in person was in late February. He had shaved his facial hair off since then, but his hair was longer than it had been since high school. Aside from some minor such changes, he was the same old Lucas Sinclair. Mike had delighted every time he noted that, as though his expectation was that all of his friends would outgrow himself and become new people while he wasn’t watching. It didn’t really make sense and he knew that he had also changed quite a bit since moving away to Bloomington, but it was still nice somehow to remember that certain things remained the same.

”I don’t even know how to play,” Max said, coming down the stairs just behind him. She dropped her weekend bag on the floor, threw a quick glance towards the mirror on the wall and made an unsuccessful attempt at taming her hair, which was damp from the drizzle outside and hung like swirls of bewildered tendrils in her face. ”To be honest I’m not even sure what D&D even is. You guys never really taught me and Jane. It seemed like one of those ’boys only’ activities you had going on, which was completely fine by the way.”

”It’s role-play!” Lucas told. He cracked up when he said it, as if addressing an old friend he used to know. He rubbed his hands together. ”Man, we used to live in that world more than we lived in the real one.”

”Especially Will,” Dustin added.

”Yeah, especially Will,” he agreed, smile fading. ”But it’s alright, Max, we’ll teach you how to play. Don’t worry.”

Max nodded but seemed a bit doubting, judged by the subtile raise of her eyebrows. Will always said that he wanted the teach Max and Jane how to play, that he wanted everyone to play together sometime, but nobody shared his wish. It was a boys only activity. It was just meant to be that way, and it wasn’t like the girls had their own activities which they were not included in.

The thought of playing without Will now felt like putting the right foot into the left foot’s shoe, regret and discomfort filled the room throughout. Will’s absence was louder now than ever, Mike could almost hear his voice — his old voice, the childish, prepubescent one — talking to them, but at the same time it was so far away, like the ghost of an already deceived child. Mike struggled to focus on finding the game because he got interrupted by horrifying images in his head of the cute little Will Byers, his best friend and the one who meant the world to him, rotting somewhere in a ditch with half of his limbs torn off by a something Mike couldn't even envision.

He hoisted one cardboard box out of the way to access another one that stood behind. He put it down ungracefully on the floor with a raucous noise that made Holly pop her head into the basement with a concerned look on her face, a package of felt-tip pens in her hand.

”What are you doing down here?” she frowned.

”Sorry, just looking for some stuff,” Mike excused with a strained laugh, brushing his hair out of his face using his shoulder. His hands were already occupied with moving some other boxes and containers. 

Holly hummed cheerfully and disappeared upstairs again, this time closing the door to the basement behind her. Her footsteps could be heard, coming from above, as they traveled across the living room.

Mike wasn’t even sure exactly where the game was, but he was sure that he hadn’t throw it away. There were several boxes and random objects shrouded in a corner of the basement. Karen had told him that he couldn’t put everything in the garage because it was overloaded and messy enough already, but he refused to throw it away. ’Sentimental value’, he insisted, and thus the basement had slowly gathered a myriad of rarely used items that collected dust under an old linen curtain that Mike had niftily draped over the mess to make his room look tidier.

”She has grown so much, Holly. I feel so old when I say it, but it’s true, she’s getting older,” Lucas laughed. He sat down on the stairs and pushed his glasses up his nose, subconsciously, but the gesture put even more emphasis on his words. ”How old is she, again?”

”She’s turning thirteen this year, born ’82.” Mike said without looking up from the cardboard box in front of him. He sat down on his knees and started digging around amongst the random toys and paperback books he had stored inside. ”How old’s Erica now…?”

”Nineteen!” Lucas exclaimed, slapping both hands on his thighs, leaning forward. ”I thought we were going to hang out when I came home yesterday like usual, I totally forgot that she’s not even in the country right now.”  
”She moved abroad?” Max asked. She leaned against one of the pillars, arms crossed.

”Not permanently, no. She’s doing her first year in France, it’s some sort of international exchange program. She’ll be back in time for summer,” Lucas told them, and then he frowned: ”Or at least that was the original plan but she’s really liking it there, got a bunch of friends and a French boyfriend now, so I guess we’ll see if she ever comes back to finish her program.”

”She’ll be back,” Dustin said calmly, ”She has always had great ambitions, hasn’t she? She was interested in politics and representing the country even as a kid. She won’t give that up so easily.”

”I sure hope so, but things change, don’t they? If she’s having so much fun maybe she’ll change her goals and adapt to the new circumstances. And this is her first boyfriend so I think she’s all up in the clouds right now.” Lucas gestured with his hands above his head. ”I just don’t want her to settle for being some French dude’s girlfriend and then have to regret it for the rest of her life.”

”She won’t. She doesn’t take anyone’s bullshit, Erica. I wish I had some of her confidence, honestly,” Max sighed, sounding genuinely envious.

”She’s not as confident as she claims to be, though. She pretends that she doesn’t care but I think she does, deep down, if you know what I mean? It’s a mask. If she’s in love with this guy and he tells her in his most romantic French voice that he wants her to stay with him instead of finishing her program, I actually think she would stay.”

Max shifted her weight away from the pillar and sat down on the stairs next to Lucas. She, Lucas and Dustin kept talking at a very amiable pace, almost slumberous, but Mike didn’t really pay attention after a while. They were soon joined by Jane. She came downstairs with her hair in a towel and some comfortable clothes on. She had nowhere to stay in Hawkins anymore after the Byers moved away, so she always stayed at the Wheelers’ when she came to visit. She had a toothbrush and some clothes stored in Nancy’s old room and she only slept in the basement with Mike if Nancy was at home. Oddly enough, Jane and Mike had developed a very sibling-like relationship, and ever odder was that it felt completely right for both of them.

”Long time no see!” she crooned and pulled Max into a tight hug. She hugged Lucas as well and they exchanged a bunch of compliments and questions. Jane told them about her preparation courses and her plans for next year. If she passed her English exams, she could go ahead and study at a community college. ”I’ll never be a Harvard person, but I’ll be happy if I just graduate with some sort of degree,” she said, humbly, and the other three cheered her on with words of encouragement and support.

These causal conversations, the mentions of future plans, possibilities and opportunities, all seemed so eerie in the context since the future was so uncertain. Mike tried to stay cool, tried to not let it get to his head so soon, but he couldn’t stop thinking of the possible outcome that they’d all get embroiled into a full-on battle again. It was so inane to think that they’d make it out of this unharmed — if at all! Wherever Will was, he was most likely on the brink of dying and they were plugging themselves into the danger — head first, obvious and unprepared — in a desperate attempt to save him. Every mention of grades and futures were so profoundly detached from the current reality, that for a while Mike wondered if they were all already insane.

He shoved the cardboard box aside with an irritated ruthlessness. He forced his way forward and started digging through the other boxes and containers while the curtain draped annoyingly in the way. He made a promise to himself to declutter this corner the very next time he had enough spare time to do it, but that didn’t change the reality that he was currently dealing with debris in amounts equivalent of a bomb detonation’s aftermath, or so it felt at least. That expression made him sound like his father, Ted Wheeler, and that worried him.

Then — like a mirage in the desert — he felt the edge of a box, a shape and texture which was familiar and sparked immediate memories. He grabbed it and pulled it out, making a plastic car fall to the floor and an old ukulele hit him in the head with a bonk when the mountain of belongings collapsed.

”Fuck!” he exclaimed, but didn’t let go of the box. His friends turned their head in his direction.

”Are you okay there, Mike?” Dustin asked, peeping up above the armchair.

”Yeah, I found it!” he replied.

He rubbed the aching spot on his head and finally left the messy corner. He held the box in the air for them to see. Lucas and Dustin both lit up with excitement and they hurried over to take a closer look. Dustin grabbed the box, blew some dust off the surface, and grinned brightly, all of his recently implanted teeth showing like in a toothpaste commercial.

”Well, look at this!” he said, mouth left open in an amazed hazy state.

Mike couldn’t deny that the box made him quite sentimental as well, and he hadn’t even laid his eyes on the actual game yet, this was just the box he stored all the other things in so they wouldn’t get lost. While they admired the plain box, Max and Jane came over. They craned their necks to see over the boys’ shoulders, trying to catch a glimpse of what was so magical. Mike stepped aside to let them into the circle. They looked at the box with great curiosity, but not with the same knowingness as the others.

”Come on, let’s start.” Mike took the box back from Dustin, unwrapped the thread that held it together and lifted the lid.

***

”I do feel rather stupid to be honest with you.” Max rested her chin in her palm, skeptical, heavy-lidded eyes wandering across the table. She readjusted her posture, stretched her arms into the air and yawned. ”I don’t mean it as an insult to you guys, I just feel like this game isn’t really my thing. I don’t get it. I feel like such a nerd.”

”That’s the point, Max — we were nerds! We were super nerdy, you saw it for yourself! But we didn’t care about it. We were proud to be nerds!” Lucas made a fist with his hand. Max laughed but rolled her eyes at his sententiousness. Lucas didn’t fool anyone though. Mike could tell that he was trying to keep their spirits up but there was something dejected about him. His eyes looked bereft of enthusiasm despite his efforts.

Dustin wasn’t doing much better. He kept slipping into a taciturn state every time it wasn’t his turn to make a move, his mental absence so apparent that Jane had to nudge him in the side to make him snap out of his thoughts.

Jane actually did a decent job considering that it was her first time. She was always agog to learn something new, a quality which Mike was delighted that she never lost. He feared that some day in the future he’d have to see her lose that spark, that eagerness and openness towards everything. She was in that sense the only one out of the five who was still childlike. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t even aware of the general pressure to grow up, or maybe she was actually the most mature of them all and hence she choose to ignore it, refused to become tedious and myopic by choice.

Mike, much like Lucas, tried his best. He wanted it to work so desperately because he knew that once they realized that this wasn’t going to work, which he knew they’d conclude soon enough, they’d be back at very start again — clueless and hopeless and Will Byers still missing.

”You know, I don’t think this will ever actually be the same without Will. We can’t recreate the magic without him,” Mike said. The others immediately picked up on the hint — it was over. Nice try, but it didn’t work. Max looked somewhat relieved.

”Will was the magic, that’s why!” Lucas sighed and his eyes rolled back hopelessly. He weighed on the chair, let it tilt back and then forward again, never letting it tilt so far back that he couldn’t keep his balance.

”Do you remember that time when Will lashed out on us because we didn’t put enough effort into the game? We were being all moody and lame and he just couldn’t take it anymore. It’s the only time Will has ever reacted like that,” Mike told. He chuckled pallidly. Lucas mumbled something but Mike didn’t listen. Instead he continued: ”I was stunned because I didn’t realize that Will could get angry until that moment and I certainly didn’t expect his first anger to be directed towards me personally. I still remember watching him bike off into the rain and I remember being too surprised to even comprehend that I was the one at fault. And then I realized but it was too late.”

Mike didn’t know why he was bringing this up. He tapped restlessly on the table surface and avoided looking at any of the others. He was an asshole back then, he knew that. And if he hadn’t treated Will like that the age of fourteen, perhaps Will would still be around now. In a strange way, it felt as if everything that had happened in the past was just foreshadowing for what was going to happen later.

”’Too late?’” Max raised an inquiring eyebrow at this.

”Yeah. By the time Mike and I had biked over to the Byers’, he was already gone,” Lucas contributed.

Mike could recall the frantic biking ride over to their house, how his heart seemed to stop the moment Will had enough of him. Perhaps that’s the way the world works, the true nature of time, but it’s so vicious to see all the mistakes, all the insignificant fibs, all the wrong priorities in retrospect and possess no power to change it. The cruelty of one thing leading to the other in a linear storyline rather than small anecdotes that began and came to an end, not necessarily intertwined with one another.

”And by the time we reunited again, Will had already forgiven us. We never had the chance to apologize first. Will was always too damn good. Both to other people but also for his own sake.”

A budding lump had started to grow in Mike’s throat. He swallowed but it didn’t go away. Not wanting to break down yet again, he left the table and walked straight towards the fridge. Dustin followed him closely with his vacant eyes.

”Could you get me another coke?” he asked.

Mike was happy that he asked because he had no actual reason for opening the fridge. He had never felt less tempted to eat or drink. He reached for another can, dwelled in the knelt down position, hand on the open door and closed his eyes. The chilled air that hit his face made him feel more awake and the whirring sound of the fridge was neither soothing nor agitating, but it was somehow a reminder of everyday things and in the turmoil it made Mike feel even more disorientated. Everything was chaos and yet it wasn’t.

The planet kept spinning, the sun kept rising in the morning, students went to school, dog owners went out for their walks, the wind kept blowing, the asphalt streets remained solid, children still played in the gardens and the fridge still hummed — everything was so perfectly normal that it was almost offensive. Will Byers was gone and his absent didn’t impact the world enough, it wasn’t fair. The world didn’t even seem to realize how much it had lost.

”Mike?” Dustin called.

”Yeah, I’m coming. Sorry.”

Mike pulled himself toward and straighten up again. He closed the door and headed back to the table. He put the coca cola in front of Dustin without a word and slumped down on his chair again. Jane rubbed his back consolingly but nobody could say any sweet words of encouragement, nobody could say that it was going to be okay. The chances of ever finding Will grew smaller every minute. Time was slipping away. Time was a cruel bitch, Mike concluded, but he had no idea what to do about the wrath. Who was there to yell at? Who was responsible for all the damage time had caused? Mike groaned and rubbed his face ruthlessly with both hands until Jane made him stop.

”That’s not helping, Mike, stop it…” she pleaded.

”Nothing is helping, Jane!” he spitted back. He rubbed his face one last time, pushed his hair back and muttered a half-hearted apology under his breath. ”Nothing’s helping.”

There was a moment of thick silence. Holly’s voice could be heard upstairs and Karen replied something indistinguishable. Mike was awash with feelings but his mind refused to form proper thoughts. It was all obfuscated. Flashes of clearness bursted through every now and then, but completely detached from anything of sense, images from memories, recollections from conversations, everything incoherent and confusing.

What purpose did it serve to think about the scent of the Byers’ laundry soap? And why did Mike care so much about it now out of all times? It was a lemony, fresh scent, he remembered. They always used the same brand, one of the cheaper ones available at Bradley’s Big Guy. Will’s clothes often had that scent lingering in the fabrics for a couple of hours after putting in on, after that his own personal scent started overtaking the lemon. It was just fucking laundry soap but Mike could have killed someone to smell it now. Back then he didn’t think twice about it.

”What you said about Will is pretty interesting to me though,” Max said on another note. She smiled a little, not at Mike’s distress but at something that must have popped up in her mind. She brushed a hair strand out of her face, tucked in behind her ear. ”Will has always been different, hasn’t he?”

”Yeah. I mean, we were all friends and on some level I guess we were very much alike each other, but Will was a bit different, he always was. He was — ” Dustin took a sip of his coke, placed the can back in front of him in, made an uncharacteristically swanky hand gesture ”— a bit distant, in a way.”

Mike hated how they talked about Will like a deceived person. This was the type of conversation people would have at a funeral reception, seated at a table with a bunch of people they didn’t personally know but who were all connected through the dead, everyone telling stories, trying to be friendly and polite, but everyone wanted to be elsewhere, doing something else. Will’s vanishing had brought them back together again after what felt like ages apart, but this was not how Mike wanted their reunion to be. And what made it worse, of course, was feeling like he was the one who had murdered Will and nobody else knew. Would they get up and leave if Mike told them everything that happened that night?

”I think he had a very vivid mind,” Dustin continued. ”All of us liked to make up stories and fantasize, but Will seemed to take it to the next level. And I always had the impression that his imagination was unattainable even for us. He shared some of it, sure, but I think there were always a lot of things he never told anyone about. Maybe he told Mike more than he told me and Lucas, but — correct me if I’m wrong, Mike — I don’t think any of us actually understood Will as well as we thought we did, now that I look back at it.”

Dustin sounded a bit woeful about this, and yet he smirked as if the thought of Will and his enigmatic nature was amusing in its complexity. Perhaps this was why Dustin found himself drawn to Will in the first place, Mike thought, and maybe that applied to himself as well, he soon realized.

”Will was an adventure and we were curious explorers,” he said, and he too cracked up in at this. 

Lucas nodded in agreement. They once again fell into silence as they instilled this. Lucas even bursted out in a cough like chortle at one point, but nobody questioned it. Jane played around with the figures on the table and tilted her head back and fourth thoughtfully, expression impossible to read. Mike liked to think of Will as an adventure, because his intuition told him that Will would probably love to be perceived as such. Will never wanted to be cool or popular, but he yearned for being interesting, for being someone you’d remember. He definitely was. Mike just doubted whether he knew it himself or not.

”I think I understood Will,” Jane said after a while.

This statement didn’t get enough attention. They kept talking about this and that, unaware of how valuable Jane’s note had been, because it was true. She understood Will. They were sort of the same. Not that she actually knew that for sure when she said it, but if they had just given it a bit more thought, they would have seen it. As they spent the evening in the basement, altering between crying, laughing, pondering and staring vacantly into nothingness, Will walked along the Lover’s lake in Hawkins, contemplating whether it was a better idea to create a gate right here or closer to the quarry.


	3. Chapter 3

Mike couldn’t stand being in the house after Lucas, Dustin and Max had gone home. He ate dinner with the rest of the family and shortly after finishing the meal Jane had retreated back to Nancy’s old room. Being alone with himself and his thoughts was rapidly turning into a phobia. The walls seemed to teeter, the floor felt wobbly and the air too thick to breath. It wasn’t the first time Mike experienced anxiety, but the feeling was nonetheless unbearable and this time he couldn’t persuade himself that everything was going to be okay.

There was no light at the end of the tunnel. Just thinking about tunnels at all gave him flashbacks more vivid than he had had since then, from when he and his friends and Steve had to walk through the endless maze of tunnels, sprawling veins all around them, the smell of organic material that seemed to have been dead for centuries already and worse of all — the battle against time, knowing that every second counted and they were the only ones who could fix it. How the hell did they make it through? How could they, at the age of way-too-young, resist crumbling under those circumstances?

Mike closed the door behind him and headed out. He wasn’t even sure where he was going, he just needed to get out, although it was soon apparent that his thoughts didn’t leave him alone just because he was idling around in downtown Hawkins any more than they left him alone in the basement.

The street lights had a halo-like glow around them, a soft, yellow light that only reached an insubstantial ratio. In between the lights there was intermittent darkness. The houses on each side of the street all seemed a lot more appealing at this late hour than in bright daylight. In the darkness, every window stood out, caught your eye. Mike enjoyed watching of the people inside, it was like a TV-screen and he only caught a quick glimpse every now and then, but he could easily imagine what they were doing if it wasn’t obvious already.

Mike kicked a rock on the ground, both hands deep into his pockets. The chilly air made his cheeks feel tingly. He decided to turn left and make his way towards the gas station. He passed a house where loud music beamed out all the way from the living room to the street at the opposite side of the garden. There were cars parked outside along the hedge, the garden gate was wide open and swayed in the wind. Mike stopped and peered in.

There were lots of people. Teenagers probably. Nobody older than eighteen willingly stayed in Hawkins. Hawkins was exclusively a town for kids, adults with kids and old fellows — a.k.a people who were too young to have any grand ambitions for themselves and the people who were too old to believe they were possible to pursue. Hawkins wasn’t a place for anything else but people-storage, people who had lived enough already or not yet old enough to live. Tragic, really.

A group of kids loitered around on the front porch, glowing cigarettes in their hands. A couple were making out against the wall, well shrouded from the rest, but clearly in sight from Mike’s standpoint by the street. There were neatly groomed trees in the garden. Some budding spring flowers made a lovely contrast to the green grass. Mike could feel the vibration from the bass better than he could hear the sound of the music. If Mike had been sixteen, he would have yearned for this type of event, he would have dwelled by the gate forever, throwing longing glances towards the people on the other side, but this night he felt repulsed more than anything.

Wasting time. He was wasting time. What was he doing? How was this helping Will? The thought rouse so suddenly and so brusquely that he brought both hands to his face by impulse. He rubbed his face and pulled at the skin beneath his eyes. If any of those kids saw him, they’d surely think he was insane, and the weirdest thing about that was that Mike didn’t even care the slightest. Was this what Jonathan called the ’not caring about other people’s opinions-freedom’ or was it ’college-age-apathy’ ?

He spun around on the spot and started walking back home with large steps, his body feeling increasingly sweaty, probably more so because of the frantic feeling of uselessness than the walk itself. He contemplated whether to drop by at Max’s since she lived closer from this location, but now he suddenly craved the solitude of his basement more than anything else and the thought of crawling in under a blanket in a dark room was irresistibly alluring.

”For fucks sake, Will, why…?” was his final thought before falling asleep that night.

***

”Mike! Mike!”

With much reluctance, Mike woke up. The confusion after a very abstract dream lingered on for yet another couple of seconds. Someone had switched on the ceiling lamp and the blunt light was obnoxiously hitting his eyes, making him groan. He rolled over and nuzzled his face back into the pillow.

Impatient steps could be heard moving from the staircase, making their way towards the bed. Mike knew that Holly was standing right beside him, probably glaring at the back of his head, and he also knew from experience that she was about to slap him awake — which she did, with the striking alacrity of a younger sibling who gets to bother their older brother. Nothing could compare.

”Mike! Jane says you need to come!” She hit again and again, until he finally rolled over and hit her back, not too hard, she only laughed and seized this opportunity to pinch his cheek now that his face was turnt upwards. ”Hah!” she cheered and then she rushed up the stairs before he could make another counter attack.

The stairs creaked as he made his way upstairs, still wearing nothing but his boxers and an old T-shirt he bought at a concert. Didn’t even listen to the band anymore. It was Saturday morning and the kitchen was livelier than usual. The acoustic on the main floor was different from the one in the basement, everything sounded more crisp. Mike could hear the quiet sound of the TV in the background, his father’s voice talking in that monotonous way as he always spoke, intermittently followed by a comment from Jane, coming from the living room. In the kitchen Holly was rambling about Hawkins’ annual spring festival and some friend’s birthday party and Karen was doing the dishes. The gentle rattling of porcelain and streaming water was soothing, almost hypnotic.

”Good morning,” Mike said, peeping his head into the living room.

Ted Wheeler sat on the couch with a cup of coffee, glasses almost falling off the tip of his nose. He nodded and raised the cup in a lame greeting. Jane turned around was immediately up on her feet when spotting Mike. She left the plate with half-finished eggs and bacon on the low table and rushed over to Mike, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along to the entrance hall, which was the furthest away from the other rooms.

”A girl named Rachel received a letter from Will yesterday,” she said, hands on her hips.

”What?” Mike shrugged his head dumbly, shaking the last lingering sleepiness off. He felt awkward and naked. If this was going to be a long, grave discussion he’d rather wear some actual clothes and preferably sit down somewhere, not stand in the middle of a jungle of jackets, shoes, scarfs and bags in his underwear. ”Who’s Rachel?”

”I don’t know her but she apparently takes art classes with Will. They are pretty close friends, it seems. She contacted mom this morning.” Jane took a deep breath. ”The letter was written two days after Will disappeared but it didn’t arrive until now.”

”How do we know that it was written then?”

”It was stated in the letter.”

”And how do we know for sure that Will wrote it?”

”Why would anyone pretend to be Will at a time like this? This is serious stuff!” she said, gesturing with a hand in the air. Then she let the hand fall limply, back into her side. She had a frustrated, nervous expression on her face. She didn’t seem to know what to do, which for once made Mike feel like he was the collected one.

He ran a hand through his hair, postponed his response. What exactly did this mean? He scratched his cheek, pondering. Holly’s laughter could be heard vaguely from the other end of the house. The sunlight shone in through the half-circle window in the front door, creating a light pool on the floor by Mike’s feet. Jane inhaled, appeared to be about to say something, but didn’t, and instead she just let it out in a sigh.

”But that must mean that he’s okay, then?” Mike said tentatively, one eyebrow slightly raised, hopeful but doubting. ”If he wrote the letter after disappearing, he’s not in the Upside Down, right?”

”Well, he wasn’t three days after disappearing at least, we now know that much.”

”But he could be in the Upside Down now.”

”What do I know?”

Another pause. Jane turned around, shoved some clothes aside and sat down at the little bench that stood by the wall, legs stretched out and head tilted back. She stared vacantly into the air. Seeing her like this made Mike feel uneasy, because it definitely gave him the impression that she had something on her mind that she didn’t share with him. Whatever that was, he couldn’t even guess, but he knew that she knew more than anybody else regarding the Upside Down, so her opinion always mattered the most.

”Do you think you could find Will through the void-thing?” he suggested.  
”I’ve tried.”

”And it didn’t work?”

”No.”

”Oh.”

Karen Wheeler approached. She came walking through the corridor which connected the kitchen to the living room, the stairs and the entrance. When she showed up on the threshold, her face instantly changed from merry to worried. She wiped her hands on a towel before throwing it over her shoulder. She eyed both of them suspiciously.

”Everything okay?”

”Yeah,” Mike said. ”Just some stuff about Will.”

Karen tilted her head to the side, smiled her most motherly smile and sighed, pitying. Mike used to hate it when she did that, but the older he got, strangely enough, the more he appreciated her consideration. It was truly a shame that he couldn’t let his mother help him with this, although she desperately wanted to help. Unfair circumstances — for both parts.

”Mike, have you had your breakfast yet?” Karen asked.

”No, I’ll have it later, thanks.”

”I could make you some.”  
”Thanks.”

After giving Mike and Jane another inquisitive look, she turned around and headed back towards the kitchen. The moment she was out of sight, the ambience became as heavy and burdensome like it was before she interrupted. Mike leaned against the door frame, Jane remained seated at the bench, neither of them saying anything.

”Does this mean that he’s alive?” Mike asked at last. He already knew that she wouldn’t be able to answer that, he didn’t know why he even asked. She just shrugged. ”What did the letter say? Have you read it?”

”It’s rather interesting, actually.” Now she stood up, snapping out of the stupor. She started idling around like she commonly did, which made her look like she was spacing out, but her gaze was sharp and present. ”I haven’t read it but I heard that Will wrote that he wouldn’t be able to attend class for a while, that he had some things he needed to take care of. The letter was an apology for not helping with the group project. He wrote that he promised to make up for it later.”

”Then he intended to come back,” Mike said, slowly, thoughtfully. Then, voice louder, he repeated: ”Then he intended to come back! If he promised to make up for it later, he indicated that was going to come back eventually!”

The delight was abounding. Mike suddenly smiled for the first time in what felt like ages, a bright, genuine smile. This meant that Will intended to come back, not to him perhaps, but to school. He planned on going back to school, keep living his life. Jane didn’t seem as excited about this. She gave Mike a dubious look that made his heart sink.

”What? Isn’t this great news?” he asked her, almost pleading.

”I don’t know.”

Mike swallowed. He crossed his arms over his chest, dwindled his posture, feeling awfully small all of a sudden. Jane had always been bolder than himself, although he tended to forget about that. She looked stern, eyebrows furrowed. He wanted to ask her what she was thinking, but he didn’t want to hear it. He jus wanted to believe that Will was okay for a moment.

”He left on purpose, Mike,” she said. ”Something serious must have happened.”

***

The day consisted of frantic discussions regarding what to do next. On one hand this, on the other hand that, time estimations, theories, phone calls back and fourth… It felt like a waste of time to discuss it, all Mike wanted to was to do something. They didn’t settle for a plan until six in the evening and didn’t get in the car until seven. An entire day was lost to mere planning. Mike was extremely disgruntled by this, he refused to even talk to anyone for the first hour.

Yes, Will left on purpose, and that wasn’t news to Mike. Mike was the only one who was actually there to witness it in person, how Will got up and left. He did so by his own free will (okay, maybe it was Mike’s inconsideration that made him go, but there was no monster present in the restaurant that suddenly abducted him and pulled him away, so… yeah.) Mike didn’t even understand how this was even a matter of discussion, considering how many times they had already reviewed everything. The letter, however, was the closest they had gotten to a note, so it was a major breakthrough to hear at least something from Will since his vanishing two weeks prior.

Mike drove without even paying attention to the conversation in the backseat, unless they specially asked for his contribution. Max sat next to him, head resting against a pillow squeezed in by between the window and the seat, mouth open and fast asleep. Dustin, Lucas and Jane were squeezed in the back amid McDonald’s takeaway bags and candy. Lucas had a map tucked in the seat pocket, which he brought out whenever Mike needed some guidance. The past two hours or so had consisted solely of straight-forward highway. On both sides of the road trees swept by, mile after mile. Trees, some open landscapes, small communities and gas stations. The lack of variation was somnolent, but Mike kept himself alert by drinking coffee, turning on the radio and reminding himself of why they were making this trip.

Mike had never been in North Carolina before. He wished that he could have acquainted himself with Will’s new area under some better circumstances, but there was still something soothing about going there to see all the things Will felt so inspired by these days. Heck, Mike even had a painting in the basement that Will had drawn, which was inspired by the local landscape near the university, and he was extremely curious to see it for himself.

”But why would Will run off like this for two weeks, which it a pretty long time, considering that it’s in the middle of the semester and he obviously had a lot of things to do?” Lucas said.

”Only something very serious would justify doing that. I don’t think Will is the type who just leaves to have fun. He’s not that adventurous.”

Mike could see in the rearview mirror how Dustin looked out the window, his expression blank and hapless. It must had been devastating for someone who had grown used to being cunning to suddenly be so clueless. And Mike agreed — this was not just a daunting situation because Will was gone, but a vivid flashback to the time when they were worthless nobodies. Mike had almost forgotten what it felt like to be so noxiously ignored and belittled, of having nobody taking him seriously, having cops laugh him in the face and call him delusional and the feeling of helplessness that followed.

”But he does love adventures!” Lucas objected.

He popped a caramel in his mouth. Mike could hear the rock solid sugar knocking against his teeth as he played around with it with his tongue. It was an annoying sound, but he didn’t say anything. He handed the bag to Dustin and soon the sound multiplied.

”Yes, but there’s a major difference between enjoying the idea, the storytelling, of adventures versus actually running off to experience it in real life,” Dustin said, caramel stuffed into the hollow of his cheek. ”I think Will made it pretty clear that he just wanted to live peacefully after everything that happened in middle school. Jeez, he’s been through enough already, why the hell would he feel tempted to do it all over again? Doesn’t make sense.”

”But that wasn’t an adventure, was it? It was a tragedy,” Mike said, throwing a quick glance over his shoulder before turning his face back to the road. ”And he had nothing to win. Isn’t the point of an adventure to have a task to complete? There needs to be a motivation behind it — a treasure, a goal, peace, eternal glory or something like that, you know what I mean? We had nothing to win by fighting against the Mind-flayer and we never actually choose to fight, we just didn’t have any other choice.”

”That’s not true. We could have let the Mind-flayer roam around freely. If we wanted to, we could have left Hawkins, left the States and refused to take responsibility for anything. It wasn’t exactly our fault that the gate opened in our neighborhood!” Lucas chortled mirthlessly.

”I opened the gate.” Jane stated this without much emotion, as casually as if she had just stated that it was cloudy outside, but the temperature inside the car immediately seemed to drop to freezing degrees. Mike turned on the radio to fill out the silence that followed, turned his attention back to the road.

”It wasn’t your fault, El. You know we’d never blame you for that,” Lucas added, apologetically.

”It’s fine,” she said, ”I just wish we understood why the creatures in the Upside Down wanted to invade Hawkins so badly and why they wanted to take Will.”

Everyone hummed in agreement. The sound of the wheels against the asphalt created a consistent vibration in the car and a purring sound to match. The car was never entirely quiet and Mike was somehow grateful for that. It happened way too often that someone said something that completely killed the vibe. Eleven’s comment was one of those, and what Lucas said next made it even worse. He sighed and mumbled, barely loud enough to hear, and yet so loud that it was rang alarmingly in Mike’s head for miles afterwards:

”I hope he wasn’t suicidal…”

Mike swallowed and turned the radio’s volume up, hoping for some relief. His hands felt sweaty on the steering wheel and the night suddenly felt wicked. Some song by Mariah Carey played again but it was surprisingly efficient to put everyone in a better mood, because Jane sang along and mimicked the dance moves. Mike turned the volume up even more. Lucas and Dustin soon joined her in poorly executed harmonizing vocals. Max woke up, disoriented and with visible marks on her face from the pillow. She looked annoyed at first but then she started laughing instead.

Mike was forever grateful for Jane’s ability to cheer them up. She had that enigmatic quality about her, she could make an impact on people even without even trying. She could make you worried, happy, sad, serious, angry — anything — by just being in the same room. A minute ago Mike had felt dejected, now he was smiling again. They’d get through this somehow, to the tunes of Mariah Carey and with more sugar than blood cells in their veins.

***

The sound of heavy rain smattering against the roof filled out the vacuum after the engine, once Lucas switched it off. There were a few cars lined up by the bed-and-breakfast’s front facade but the parking space was mostly empty. Puddles of water had formed. The sky was covered in a thick layer of pedestrian clouds, no stars were visible that night. A lady rushed from the main building, across the parking, and plunged inside a smaller house which had a sign reading ’Stephanie’s kitchen’, heads shielding her hair from the rain as she ran. 

”Jonathan said it wasn’t too expensive here,” Lucas said.

He seemed to say it to himself more than he said it to the rest. He remained seated by the steering wheel, leaned forward to peer out. The hostel didn’t look too nice, Mike agreed. It was run down. An overfilled garbage container stood by the wall, it even looked like some sort of animal had been feasting there recently. The welcoming sign was shabby, the chains which it hung from were rusty and creaky.

”Come on, we need some rest.” Max took the initiative to step out of the car. She opened the trunk, eyes squinted to avoid the water, grabbed her bag and ran towards the front porch. She stopped under the roof and waited for the rest to come. Her hair looked absolutely soaked and the sprint only lasted a second or two, from the car to the entrance.

”I think I could keep driving, it’s not too bad,” Mike insisted. He sipped the last cold drops of coffee from the takeaway mug next to him. He wasn’t even sure whose the mug was, he didn’t really care either. It was getting late but if he could just get his hands on some more coffee and have someone stay awake to keep him company, he’d be fine. He could drive.

”No, she’s right. It’d be stupid to get sleep-deprived on top of everything. The brain needs rest to function,” Dustin said. Mike knew there was no point to argue with it.

He gathered his belongings in the backseat and waited for Jane to get out so he could follow. They followed Max’s example and got their bags from the trunk as fast as they could and hurried over to her, avoiding the puddles. Mike could feel drops of water trickling down his face from his hair, one even found its way underneath his sweater, making him shiver uncomfortably as it ran along his spine. His legs were numb, each joint in his body felt stiff. The girls didn’t seem to have the same problem, they could stretch their legs out if they wanted to.

”Holy shit!” Lucas exclaimed, finally making it over to the porch, being the last one. He had to take his glasses off to wipe them clear of water before putting them back on. He was the only one who didn’t have wet hair strands glued to his forehead at this point. Mike actually thought it was really cool how his hair could maintain its shape so well but he had learned that Lucas didn’t appreciate random comments about his hair all the time so didn’t say anything.

Now that they were all protected by the roof, it was actually cosy to hear the rain and watch it pour. They were all tired and in need of sleep. The intermittent naps in the car primarily served the purpose of killing time, they didn’t actually do much for their energy levels. Mike was a bit hesitant to slumber too, solely for the reason that he feared his own behavior while asleep. He had frequent nightmares lately and didn’t want anybody to see him whining and twitching like that. Embarrassing.

Once again Max led the way. She opened the door and stepped into the hostel’s entrance lobby. It wasn’t big, but it was decent. A sphere shaped lamp hung in the ceiling, there was a couch and some armchairs to the left. A man sat in one of the chairs, reading the news, a glass of whiskey in one hand. A scent of English rose pervaded the lobby throughout and the walls were painting in a soft pink. A woman sat behind a counter, painting her nails and humming to a song. She looked up when they came in through the door, almost wincing back in surprise.

”Good evening!” she greeted. She genuinely seemed delighted to see them, although a bit abashed by how unprepared she was. Perhaps that was because they didn’t have a lot of guests, Mike thought, which was a haughty thing to think but probably true.

They lined up in front of the counter like a herd of kids who had skipped around in the rain and were now preparing themselves to get scolded by a proper adult. They were not real adults, the early twenties was like a trainee-phase. Nobody took the initiative to tell the clerk what they wanted, everyone waited for someone else to do it. Mike felt like a fraud. He waited for the clerk to ask where his parents were, but she never asked. He felt the same way when going to the bank and when going to the doctor. He always felt like a twelve-year old in disguise. The whole situation was a bit awkward.

”How can I help you tonight?” she asked after an extended staring session, hands clasped together.

”We’d like to stay here for the night,” Mike said, hands on the counter, drumming nervously.

”And maybe eat something,” Jane added. She had been whining for food for the past two hours but Lucas had refused to pull over to get something along the way.

”Yes, yes, of course,” The clerk nodded. She reached for something behind the desk and then placed a moleskin calendar in front of her. She grabbed a pencil from a little box next to her. ”Single bedrooms? Doubles?” she asked as she opened the calendar and started flipping through the pages, still carefully, fingers sprawling unnaturally to not chip her polish.

”Well, I’d love to split the cost. Anybody who minds sharing?” Lucas pleaded. He smiled an exaggerated smile, teeth showing. He looked crazy but he got his way.

It had gradually become a standard joke how Lucas suddenly was so conscious with money. He was definitely the one who was born into the richest family out of the bunch — aside from Max, but out of the original party — and he used to be annoyingly oblivious to the other’s prerequisites, especially Will’s. Since moving to New York and starting earning his own money he had made a one-eighty and had turned into somewhat of a cheapskate. Not that they could blame him, of course, the rent in New York city was way beyond the cost of living in Hawkins, but it was hilarious to see him like that.

”It serves you right! Karma, Lucas, karma!” Dustin crooned as they left the counter and started making their way up a narrow staircase — covered with a pink carpet. He pushed Lucas’ shoulder, almost making him fall over with the weight of his weekend bag.

”No, it’s not karma! It’s insight!” he snapped back.

”Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

”It’s not whatever! Why do you always say that facts are ’whatever’ unless they’re coming from you?! Bullshit, Dustin, bullshit!”

Mike only laughed at this conversation. When they made it to the second floor, both Lucas and Dustin walked off into the corridor without even consulting with the other three regarding who were going to share the double room. Lucas had the key to the room in his pocket and didn’t seem to think twice about it. Dustin followed as if it was given. Their bickering could be heard continuing all the way down the hall, until it disappeared out of perception when the door closed behind them.

”They’re weird, those two,” Max said, half-impressed, half-scowling, throwing a look behind her before the staircase curved and the departure to the second floor got out of sight, ”It’s almost like they’re getting dumber every year.”

”No doubt, ” Mike agreed, ”but don’t we all?”

The other three continued walking up the stairs to the third floor, which was the highest. Jane and Max decided to share the other double-room and Mike, much to his relief, got the single room further down the corridor.

The room didn’t much anything more than a narrow bed, the tiniest closet he had ever seen (it couldn’t possibly be an actual closet, it had to be an old linen cupboard or something, with the shelves removed and a little hanger attached instead). The mirror on the wall had fingerprints on it left by a previous guest, but aside from that it was at least nice and clean and there was only a vague trace of that obtrusive scent of roses. The best thing was that the water ran hot in the shower and that was actually the only thing Mike really needed, a hot shower, so he was satisfied with the stay. He decided to sleep instead of joining the others to the restaurant. He doubted the food would be any good anyway.

All he could think about was the letter Will had sent that girl Rachel. She had told mrs Byers, who had told Jane, who had told Mike. He craved to see it in person, read it for himself, eliminate the risk misinterpretations. Maybe he was being self-centric, but he truly felt it deep in his guts that he knew Will better than most, even the rest of the former party and maybe even Joyce and Jonathan. Mike had faith in that he would be able to read what Will had written and understand not just what Will wanted to say, but what he didn’t want to say, when writing it. How many drawings hadn’t Mike received throughout the years that were so perfectly subtile and yet so obvious to nobody else but himself? The way Will sneaked alluding messages into his work was remarkable. He only left clues behind and forced the viewer to figure out the picture. Perhaps this was all a game?

Did Will want them to search for him? If so, what did he want them to find?


	4. Chapter 4

Mike woke up feeling great. He felt warm and gruntled the whole morning actually. He didn’t remember what he dreamt that night, but it was nice for once. When he sat down behind the steering wheel and started rolling back to the highway, he felt optimistic. The Virginian landscape looked stunning, despite being soaked after the night’s downpour. The sky had lightened up. The sun never made it through the clouds, but it was definitely there. The post-rain air, with its fresh earthiness and clarity, blew in through the open windows. Mike let his left hand stick out, the wind brushing against his skin, as he steered with his right. This was the firs time since getting in the car that he felt like they were on a road trip together.

”The man next door snored like crazy. We could hear him through the wall. I wanted to get up and personally punch him in the face,” Max muttered, struggling with a drop of dressing that ran down her wrist. She was eating a sandwich, the wrapping paper pushed down and some sort of goo leaking out on each side of the bread. ”You’re lucky you got some sleep, Mike! You didn’t hear him, did you?” He shook his head no, still smiling.

After a while of driving with the window down, Mike finally gave up and closed it again. The wind was too brusque. Jane’s hair looked hilarious at this point, the wind had truly given it some new life. The morning bliss slowly faded into the familiar, stern reality. Will was gone. They had no idea what they were actually doing. They had no guarantee that going all the way to North Carolina was actually going to help them in their search, and if it turned out that none of Will’s classmates could tell them anything of value, they had wasted yet another couple of days. Will’s chances of making it out alive were getting lower by the minute. He barely survived a week last time, Mike reminded himself, and over two weeks had already passed.

As this realization washed over him, he found himself detaching himself from it entirely, like advertisement mail from a company he didn’t care about, he threw it away without even reading what it had to say first. According to Dustin this was a coping mechanism, because accepting the reality was just too brutal to handle. Mike was smart enough to figure that much out himself, but he appreciated that he wasn’t the first one who did this and he wasn’t callous nor selfish for not wanting to think about misery every minute of the day.

And yet, visions of Will, nothing more than a half-eaten corpse, rotting away in the Upside Down flashed through his mind at random times. They appeared so unexpectedly that he couldn’t guard himself in advance. Mike almost crashed into a car passing in the other lane last time it happened but he insisted that he could keep driving. It mostly had to do with the fact that Dustin was an awful driver, Max had just recently gotten her license and Jane had no license. Lucas was the only one he could trust with his car, but for some reason Mike felt irrationally possessive about it. It was in a way his third home these days — the other two being Hawkins and the campus.

”Have you ever heard Will speak of someone named Rachel?” Dustin asked. He seemed to address this question directly to Mike.

”He mentioned her name, yes.” Mike wasn’t sure if this was actually true, but he said it as though he was assured. Jane didn’t say anything. Miked hoped she had already forgotten that Mike had asked her who Rachel was and she had to tell him everything she knew, because he knew nothing.

Will had spoken of several classmates and teachers that night, he had literally overwhelmed Mike with everything he had done and everything that had happened since starting the program, there was no way Mike could remember every single person. Rachel did sound familiar, but if this was due to the fact that Rachel was a fairy common name or if it was because Will had actually told him about her, he wasn’t sure. Although ashamed to admit this, he insisted that he had at least a vague idea of who she was, simply because he hated to acknowledge that he had no idea who Will’s new friends were. Once again Mike concluded that he was an awful best friend. Way too self-centered, way too inconsiderate. Did he ever treat Will like he deserved to be treated? Did he suffer from the shitty-friend-disorder? Was there such a diagnosis? How else could it be that he couldn’t remember a single name Will had mentioned that night?

”Well, he hasn’t told me anything… — ” Dustin’s despondency made his face look close to bitter, but Mike knew that he was actually just incredibly sad and puzzled, ” — which is weird since we met not too long ago so I suppose he was already good friends with this Rachel at the time.”

”He’s secretive, we’ve talked about this already!” Lucas said.

”Yeah, I know that much too, Lucas, I just think it’s alarming since we’re literally his best friends and we have literally no idea who he is!” 

Mike held his hands steady on the wheel, every inch of him tense as though a major impact was coming his way and he had to stay put. The impact was really just the temptation to just make a drastic turn and crash the car into something.

***

They walked over the campus in awe. Mike didn’t know why he found it so enchanting, his own campus wasn’t too bad either. Maybe it was just the realization that this was the reality for a lot of people, just like Indiana was his reality. It made him feel small. Dumbly enough, it was easily forgotten that life happened in places where you couldn’t be there to witness it. Here people lived their lives and Mike had no idea about it. Did they have unwritten rules at universities in North Carolina that they didn’t have in Indiana? Did they talk about the same music? Did they have inside jokes he would never understand? It was surreal to think about it.

There were students loitering around on the lawn. The grass was perfectly dry here and the sun peeked through every now and then. The temperature was just right, too. Mike carried his denim jacket on his arm and strolled around in a short-sleeved T-shirt without freezing. It was strange how they had traveled from Hawkins chilly degrees to pouring rain in western Virginia and now lovely spring in North Carolina. Mike seriously questioned his decision to study in his home state.

A group of students bursted out laughed raucously. It was Sunday. Everything seemed rather peaceful, no commotion in sight anyway, spring break was over already. Some were playing cards on a gingham blanket, some were studying. Mike felt like an intruder walking around at this campus where he didn’t belong. Thinking about how Will belonged in all of this almost drove him crazy, because he couldn’t imagine it no matter how hard he tried. What was Will’s role at this place? Was he one of the card-players? One of the frisbee-throwers? The guy who slept directly on the grass with a magazine over his face?

”It’s pretty,” Jane said. She nodded towards a large, brick red and ancient looking (by American standards anyway). There was a majestic entrance, two stout poles on each side of the stairs and a cupola on top of the roof with consummated details. She looked absent, eyes twinkling woefully.

Mike could guess that she was envisioning herself studying here. She rarely complained, but he knew that she was sick of being the only one who had complementary studies to finish before she could even apply to college. She wasn’t a stupid girl. She was sharper than most in fact, but she still lacked some of the fundamental knowledge that she needed in order to move on.

”We’ll have to ask someone,” Lucas said pragmatically. He looked around them, searching for someone to approach but nobody seemed particularly interested in aiding some visitors.

”She said that she would meet us outside. She’ll find us.” Mike looked down at his wristwatch. She was supposed to be here any second. He suspected that she was also searching around at campus, trying to find them. Mike liked to think that she knew what they looked like because Will had shown her photographs.

They stopped for a moment. There were several building on the campus but some trees blocked the view. He was getting more nervous by the second, his breathing was speeding up despite not moving at all. Adrenaline, hope, anxiety and frustration all at once. He couldn’t even tell if he was getting worked up predominantly because of excitement, considering that they were likely one step closer to finding Will now, or because of worry since there was a significant risk that they would return to Hawkins empty-handed.

Then, in the distance, Mike spotted a girl who was walking towards them. She had a heavy-looking bag hanging crossbody, which made her gait a bit funny.

”Hello! You must be Will’s friend, am I right?” she asked once she was closer enough, voice sounding a bit strained, out of breath as if she had hurried to get there. Before they even had the chance to answer she said: ”I’m Rachel. I’m glad you could come. Nice to meet you.”

Mike shook the hand stretched out towards him with a some reluctance. She didn’t seem to notice. She smiled amiably, large front teeth showing. He eyed her up and down, put her under scrutiny. She was overall a pretty girl. Blonde hair down to her collar bones, lanky arms and legs, simple clothes in solid light colors, a little awkward in a cute way, very girl-next-door. Mike could see how well she fit together with Will.

He could see the two staying up late in the dorms talking about books, going on walks, studying, drinking coffee together and taking care of each other. Mike didn’t know if that bothered him or if it was delighting to think that Will had found someone who understood him. It just felt like getting stabbed repeatedly in the guts whenever he remembered, which he now did every two seconds, that Will had specifically written her a letter but nobody else. Was this the first step towards falling out of friendship, growing apart? Mike knew that most people didn’t stick together with their friends from kindergarten forever, but for some reason he had always been assured that he was going to be friends — or more — with Will forever. Not that he could really blame Will, but it still hurt to think that he wrote her a letter and not anyone else.

”So… I have the letter in here,” she patted on the bag, ”We could go straight to the dorm, but the weather is rather nice, we could sit outside just as well, if you’d like?”

There was something disarming about the way she phrased her sentences, the doe-eyes, the harmless aura and the reserved way she moved. Mike couldn’t hate her. She kept her hands shyly to herself, fiddled with a long necklace that was the only thing fashionable about her outfit, or kept them entangled. She only gestured with them from time to time, and when she did it was solely delicate movements. Her hands looked soft, which also reminded Mike a lot of Will, and there were subtile stains of paint around her cuticles.

”You decide,” Jane said.

”Well, in that case I suggest we head over to the dorms.” She started walking back down the same path as she had come from at an ambling pace. The rest followed her. ”I have searched through Will’s dorm already. I know it’s a mean thing to do, but when I heard he had been missing for so long I just had to see if he had left any clues behind. I couldn’t find anything, but maybe you can?”, she said.

”We’ll gladly take a look,” Mike said.

Rachel gave him a glance, that once again reminded him a whole lot of Will, although Mike had only seen the expression on his face once — the pitying smile. She had her arms crossed over her body and held her elbows cupped in her hands. She seemed to be about to say something, but then she didn’t. Max and Jane had their own separate conversation in the background, Mike picked up on that they talked about acceptance rate.

”Will really likes you,” Rachel said at last.

”Yeah?” Mike wanted to lay down at the ground a yell, but instead the left corner of his mouth just pulled up the tiniest bit and he kept his voice steady.

”Absolutely.” She nodded, eyes locked at her feet. ”He hasn’t told me a whole lot about you guys, he’s a bit… how do you put it…?”

”Secretive.”

”He’s a bit secretive, yes — ” she agreed, ” — but he always looks happy when he mentions his friends back in Indiana. I suppose he’s referring to you guys. He doesn’t seem as excited when he talks about Maine. I think he was a bit lonely up there.”

She cracked up in a smile, and so did Mike for the first time since meeting her. This was a turning point, Mike knew immediately. He decided that he liked her, that she was a good person, and they both cared a lot about Will, which brought them together although they didn’t even know each other.

They walked over the campus and she guided the way to her dorm, which she shared with a girl named Lea. Will’s dorm wasn’t too far away from there. The buildings were symmetrical, rectangular blocks, not as swanky as the main building, probably built more recently, with dorm rooms lines up one after the other in a row with identical windows towards the lawn outside. Despite the simplistic style, the dorm buildings looked thought-out and fit in with the environment seamlessly. They didn’t look like an afterthought unless you really looked closely and saw that they weren’t as finely executed as the rest of the school.

”Lea’s not here at the moment. I think she went to visit her parents over the weekend or something,” Rachel explained as she welcomed them in.

The dorm was certainly not made for six people at once, but it was alright. Two loft beds stood along the walls on each side of a window with convenient little desks stationed underneath. There was a circle shaped rug on the floor in between the beds, white curtains billowed in the soft breeze when it slipped in through the open window, a petite couch was placed along the wall just to the right when coming in through the door.

Mike was always amused to see girls’ dorms because they were so nice in comparison to most guys’. Mike himself thought he had done a good job at making his room cosy when he bought a cactus and washed his bedsheets once month (it probably wasn’t even once a month, but he’d like to think that it was). This room, on the other hand, actually looked like a real room and not just a temporary dorm stay.

”I’m sorry, it’s a bit messy,” Rachel excused herself. Mike frowned. She hastily collected some makeup products which laid around like debris on the desk and stuffed them into a bag.

Matching baby blue duvets peeped down over the edge of the bunkbeds. There were cut out pictures from magazines taped to the wall on one side of the room, the side which Mike suspected was Lea’s. There were a few pictures of the supermodels, cute animals and an article about why you should stay away from men which had been cut out from a magazine. There was also a flag draping near the ceiling, which, if Mike remembered it correctly, was the Venezuelan flag.

”So you’ve known Will for a while now…?” Max asked. She leaned against the bunk bed frame, eyes wandering around the room.

At Rachel’s side, there were some polaroid picture stuck to the wall that caught his interest. When Mike leaned in closer to take a look he spotted Will in a few of them. In one of them he made a grimace, a thick stroke of paint across his cheek and a paint brush in his hand. He had his other hand wrapped around Rachel’s shoulder and she stuck her tongue out. If Mike didn’t know that Will was gay, he would have thought that they were a couple.

”We take some classes together but I didn’t really notice him at first. I think we spoke for the first time a couple of week into the semester. We had a friend in common who arranged a get-together for the new kids and that’s when we first got to know each other and we’ve friends ever since. He’s a great guy, Will. Everybody likes him.”

”Well, there’s no reason not to.”

”Exactly,” Rachel nodded, wistful smile. ”He gets on with the popular kids just as well as the bookish ones, the sporty, the artsy, freshmen, seniors, locals, foreigners, black people, white people… he’s got a good heart. He doesn’t judge anybody.”

She grabbed one last shirt off the floor and folded it. She placed it on top of the desk for now and stopped cleaning for the first time since coming into the room. This somehow became the gesture that let everyone know that it was time to start.

They made themselves comfortable the best they could. Jane, Max and Lucas squeezed themselves together on the couch. Dustin pulled a desk chair around and sat down, his posture very businesslike and comically incongruous for the situation. Rachel made a gesture for Mike to take the last available seat, Lea’s chair, one of those spinning ones. He slumped down and immediately started twisting back and fourth, unable to stop himself for doing so.

Rachel opened her bag, hoisted some books out of it that she put aside, and finally pulled out an envelope. She handed it over directly to Mike, who sat the closest.

”I don’t know if it’s helpful…” she said, almost apologetically. Once Mike had the letter, she clasped her hands together tightly, her knuckles took on a pallid hue, her encouraging smile wasn’t actually that encouraging, it was so taut it was awkward. Mike got the impression that she was a bit afraid of him, which only made him more nervous too. He knew that he could be an asshole, but her reaction wasn't fair. He hoped that she was like this around other people as well.

The envelope almost possessed a magical quality to it, it made Mike’s fingers tingle and it filled the room with a striking intensity. He looked at the front side, looked at the backside. The envelope itself was plain. The address was written with Will’s handwriting, which was very easy to identify by the way he wrote everything in tiny letters, rounded and cute, and for some reason he mixed in capital letters in the middle of words sometimes. Mike had asked him about it in the past, and Will seemed very surprised by it, as though he wasn’t even aware himself.

”Should I open it?” Mike asked his friends.

”Of course.”

”Go on.”

The letter had already been opened before. He carefully took the paper sheets tucked inside out and unfolded them. There were two separate sheets, one which had text written on it, the other which was a simple artwork. It was a logo, but it wasn’t an official one.

”Read it out loud,” Dustin said.

Mike took a deep breath. He felt himself clam up right away when looking down at the letter. It was so casual, so easy. This wasn’t a suicide note, definitely not, he could tell right away, which was a delight to see but it made his head spin of confusion.

” ’Hi Rachel! I’m sorry that you’re finding out like this, I wish had had the time to tell you in person. Some things have happened so I have some stuff I need to do. I don't know yet for how long I’ll be gone, but don’t worry, I’m okay. (I know you’re the type of person who won’t believe that, but please do believe me this time, I really am okay). I’m sorry for ditching you guys. I made a drawing as a suggestion, but you really don’t need to care about my opinion, I’m sure you can do a better job. I promise that I’ll make up for leaving you like this when I get back. Will’ ”.

Mike stared, read it several times again in his head. He eventually handed Lucas the letter and Dustin the drawing. He remained at the seat like an empty shell. What the hell did this mean? Will didn’t say anything regarding what he was actually doing and where he was. Mike rubbed his face with both hands. Rachel seemed anxious about seeing him like this but she didn’t say anything. The room was eerily quiet considering how many people there were inside.

”So… he’s going to come back at least, that much is clear,” Lucas stated impassively, eyebrows raise.

No, it wasn’t clear at all, Mike thought, but he couldn’t say that when Rachel could hear him. If everything went according to his plan, whatever it was, he intended to come home, but he may not have taken it into consideration that a monster would abduct him again and that he’d get stuck in the Upside Down forever. He wanted to come back, but would be make it?

”Can we really be sure that he’s okay just because he told us that he was?” Dustin closed his eyes. ”I mean, this letter is dated back to three days after disappearing. Things may have changed since then.”

”If he wrote it the 9th, why didn't it arrive until now?”

”Mail gets lost all the time. I once received a Christmas card from my grandma in March. She sent it two weeks before Christmas. It’s not unbelievable, just very unfortunate…” Lucas said, tone dreary. He sighed deeply, pushed his glasses up. ”It is what it is, but ff we had received this earlier, Will could have been found already.

”There’s no guarantee for that, Lucas. This letter doesn’t say much,” Max shrugged. ”How were we supposed to find him with this little information? Wouldn’t have made any difference it we received it earlier.”

”Anyway, what’s this drawing?” Dustin looked up at Rachel, the drawing in held between his fingers in the air.

”An assignment. We were asked to redesign the school logo. All the students are going to vote for their favorite one and the logo that wins can possibly become the official logo for the university. Our teacher said it was uncertain if it was actually going to happen, the council is very fond of our current logo and it’d be expensive to change it, but it was a fun project anyway,” she said, fiddling with her necklace, not looking back at him directly.

”He must have left very impulsively,” Lucas noted. He handed the letter over to Jane. Max leaned in to read it with her. The drawing was passed over from Dustin to Lucas. ”He claims that he didn’t have time to tell you. Impulsively — and also in a rush. He literally hurried off, wherever he went.”

”Yes, so it seems.” Rachel agreed.

She looked exhausted. It seemed like she had also been worrying a lot lately, she had that grey dullness in her face. The cheerfulness she had radiated when they first greeted one another had washed off. She looked rather sullen now. Mike had grown familiar with the sudden changes between sparks of hope and crippling worry. To the eye, she still looked the same. Her lips and cheeks had a tint of pink, her eyes were still blue — but the general impression of pallor was undeniable. Mike probably looked just the same. It was like the black hole on the inside swallowed all the color in the world.

”That’s odd,” was all Mike had to contribute with.

”I think so too.” She took a deep breath. ”You know, the other students and the teachers keep telling me that I shouldn’t worry. I’m sure you’ve heard that students sometimes leave randomly and then they show up again. I guess there are many different reasons for it — financial issues, family related things, health, the wilderness calling, events, inspirational trips — you name it. But I can’t help but to worry because Will has never done anything like this before. He doesn’t seem like the type. Perhaps he’s masking something, but I always thought he liked it here. I don’t see why he would run away like that and be gone for so long without letting anybody — not even his best friends and his family — know where he is and what he’s doing.”

”He didn’t write anything to anybody else but you, did he?” Max leaned back against the couch cushions, hands on her lap.

”Not as far as I know, no. We’re a group of four working on this project but the others didn’t receive anything. None of the teachers know anything. I honestly don’t think they care that much either. Will is a good kid. He’s smart. They take it for granted that he knows what he’s doing. He’ll figure something out and graduate with top grades eventually, even if he leaves school randomly for a while.”

”What about his boyfriend?”

Everyone turned their faces towards Mike, baffled. He was even baffled himself, eyes shut wide in surprise like an idiot. Did he just say that out loud? Mike wanted to sink through the floor. Even Rachel looked confused by this question. Their expression said enough — they had no idea that Will even had a boyfriend. This made everything even weirder. Mike was sure that Will had met the guy at school since he was definitely single before starting the program, so Rachel should know about it, if anyone in this room.

”You’ve never heard him mention a boyfriend?” Mike floundered, blinking dumbly.

”No.”

”Oh.”

Lucas searched for the words to say. He waved around with his hand and had his eyes squeezed shut, thinking frantically. Then he opened them, staring wide-eyed at Mike, looking almost manic. Mike felt feverish and ashamed but tried to meet this reaction calmly. His nervous nail-biting didn’t have to mean that this was actually a big deal, he was nervous a lot, just in general.

”Two weeks, Mike — two weeks! You haven’t mentioned a single fucking time that Will had a boyfriend!” Lucas almost looked like he was about to hurl himself off the couch and smack him in the face. ”Why didn’t you tell us?! This is — I — what the fuck, dude — do you realize how valuable that information is?! Since when does Will have a boyfriend?! Why are you the only one who knows about this?! Jane, did you know about Will’s boyfriend?”

”No,” Jane said, shaking her head slowly. She looked perfectly innocent. It made Mike feel even worse.

”I don’t know anything about him,” Mike assured, calmly but of a phony kind. He had all eyes on him and Dustin’s annoyingly sharp gaze was almost assaulting. He swallowed. It felt like walking in thin ice, one step wrong and he’d fall into freezing water. Drown. Die. Disaster. It probably wasn’t that serious but it felt like this was a particularly sensitive subject, perhaps more to him than to anybody else, but that didn’t change the agonizing heart frequency which made Mike feel like he was about to have a heart attack at any moment. He inhaled, put his hands down on his lap so he couldn’t bite his nails anymore, and continued: ”I don’t know his name, his age, where he lives, how they know each other — nothing. Will just mentioned that he had met someone and he was happy with him. We won’t be able to find him, he’s useless in this equation, so this is not valuable information at all, Lucas. If it was, I would have told you already.”

”Is there anyone you know around here who could possibly be seeing Will?” Dustin asked. The question was so concise it resembled an examination. Poor Rachel looked like she was about to cry. She tried to throw her hands in the air but it looked like a frighted spasm more than anything. She shook her head no.

”I didn’t even know he was into guys…” she squeaked, and now she did cry.

She wiped the tears away, excused herself. Max gave the boys an angry ’look-what-you-did’ glare. She got up from the couch and wrapped her arm around Rachel’s shoulders. Jane joined, a tad confused. With their heads close together, Max said something imperceivable and Rachel nodded. Jane stroke her back.

Mike, Lucas and Dustin looked at each other, on the brink of bursting out laughing because of the obscure twist this meeting had taken, and in that moment the three of them made peace with each other again, an instant bond formed by being excluded from the girls’ sudden closeness. Mike felt okay for now, but all those incidents had already created a tiny crack in the ice he was walking on. He didn’t know for sure how much more it could hold before he’d fall through. Was that a bad thing?

***

Will’s had a room in a different hall. Rachel had to get the guy living in the room next door to let them in as he had a spare key, which was a bit of a hustle since he wasn’t there. She asked them to wait outside while she tried to find him. They sat on the lawn outside and Mike was surprised by how easily they blended in amongst the actual students. Rachel returned a while later, excused herself for taking so long, but Mike was just happy to see that she actually found the guy, that he wasn’t running errands off campus or anything.

”Will has my spare key and I have his. We both have a tendency to lose them so we thought it’d be a good idea, just in case,” he said, waving the little key in the air.

He was a big guy with a rosy cheeks, a mop of dark hair on top of his head and frayed sneakers on his feet. He greeted them politely and told them that his name was Eric. He had just recently moved into the dorm because his girlfriend broke up with him and kicked him out of the apartment she owned a twenty minute walk away from campus. He chortled as he said this, seemingly amused more than hurt. They chatted with him briefly before he finally gave them the information they wanted and the keys.

”I don’t know much about Will, to be completely honesty with you guys. He was helping me with an assignment just before he left, a day or two prior, I don’t remember exactly. We stayed up all night in the commons, didn’t get much done but we had a good time anyway. He seemed fine to me. Was in a good mood, but I don’t think he was on drugs or anything like that. He said that he was going to visit a friend in Indiana, didn’t seem like a big deal so I didn’t ask any further questions. I’m afraid I’ve got nothing more to say.”

After this quick report Eric left them. He gave Rachel the spare key in case she’d need to get in again. They thanked him for his assistance and watched him waddle away down the hall. He didn’t seem frantic about this whole thing, confused perhaps, but definitely not too worried. He whistled all the way, bobbed his head from side to side.

Mike didn’t know if he found it soothing or alarming that most people didn’t recognize the severity in this. They didn’t know about the history of monster invasions on the other hand, so their impression of tranquility came across as noxiously delusional to him personally, but their casual attitude made Mike reconsider his own perception of the case. They did close the gate, he reminded himself. The gate closed. The Upside Down had been cut off from their reality for years now. Why would a gate suddenly bust open now? It didn’t make sense so there could be other explanations to Will’s vanishing.

Either way it made him feel bad when everyone said that the last thing they had heard from Will was that he was meeting a friend in Indiana, which was clearly referring to him. Images of the cheap restaurant, the happy reunion that turned into a mess, and Will’s back disappearing out the door. It was his fault, Mike thought every time. If he had not asked Will to visit him, if they didn’t go out to eat, if he didn’t confess his feelings, Will would still be around. They could have left the restraint together, stayed safe. But they didn’t. Will left alone — and then he was gone.

Mike also felt pretty awful about how his own feelings scared Will away like that. It didn’t exactly make him feel less like a freak to have someone literally run away the moment he opened up about it, but that pettiness was secondary at a crucial time like this. Mike couldn’t really get mad about it either, he had done the same thing in the past when Will tried to be candid, which was an additional reason which supported the evidence that it was technically his fault that Will was gone. Sort of.

Dustin pushed the door open, carefully, as if he expected Will to sit in there and get startled by the unexpected visitors. Will was of course not there (how funny wouldn’t it had been if he was just asleep in his dorm all along?). The room looked like it had just been abandoned a minute ago. The bed was hastily made, there were color pencils all over the desk, a jacket thrown over the back of the chair, one drawer open with some clothes sticking up. It looked like Will had rummaged through the drawer and headed straight out the door.

”I can see Will living here,” Jane smiled, ”It looks like his room at home.”  
Mike wasn’t sure what she was referring to with that comment, if it was the creative messiness (unfinished drawings everywhere, the art supplies, a container full of papers of various shades and sizes), the color scheme (neutrals, warm shades of orange, yellow, deep red, earthy brows) or the beddings (Mike recognized them from sleepovers, Will had had those since they were kids). Perhaps it was the overall impression that made it obvious that this was Will’s room. It felt like a welcoming hug to enter.

”I’m sure he’s happy he’s got his own room,” Lucas said, looking around.

”Yeah, he needs his own space,” Rachel agreed. ”That’s why I didn’t worry at first when he didn’t show up. I thought he was just in his own little world or something. But he’s never been gone like this before, not for this long.”

After instilling the room for a moment, they started searching for clues. Mike had always envisioned being a detective as a remarkably interesting, fun job, but when trying to solve a potential murder case involving his best it wasn’t fun at all. It was increasingly frustrating to not find any clues. He had never been a particularly patient person.

Jane found a piece of paper on which Will sketched some suggestive school logos, dated April 3rd 1994, which was just before heading off to meet Mike. He vanished the night of April 6th. She showed it to everyone, but this didn’t really provide any new information that they didn’t already know. She placed it back where she had found it.

”Guys!” Max suddenly exclaimed.

Everyone turned around to see. She was crawling on the floor, strained face, tongue sticking out. She had one arm reaching underneath the bed. She pulled the arm back, empty-handed, and sat up, slightly out of breath. She brushed off some dust off her sleeve with a repulsed groan.

”My arm’s not long enough. I’m pretty sure there’s a calendar under there,” she said, cocking her head towards the bed.

Mike hurried over. He knelt down and peered underneath. The bed was low, the wooden legs scarcely high enough to allow an arm to slid under. Mike lay down flat on his stomach on the floor and squeezed his arm in. His first three attempts to find the calendar failed and instead he pulled out one Kit Kat packaging after the other. On his fourth attempt, when really reaching as far in as he could get, he felt something that resembled a book or a wallet brushing against his fingertips. He struggled for a moment, feeling everyone’s anticipating eyes on him, and finally he managed to pull it out. He dusted it off, flipped it over. Engraved on the front cover it said ’1994’.

”It’s a calendar,” he confirmed.

Mike wondered for how long it had been forlorn under the bed and he soon found realized that it couldn’t had been for very long. It was filled with recent notes, checklists and doodles. Some birthdays were distributed throughout the year, but most of the pages towards the end were empty, which made sense since it was still just spring after all.

He found a note which said ’Go to Europe??’ in August. On this particular day, April 24th, Will had scribbled ’consult mr Anderson’ and on April 9th, three days after vanishing, he had written ’hand in graphic print’ and a reminder to give back a book he had borrowed from someone he called ’C’. No indications of running away or suspicious trips anywhere. Will’s plan was to return to school after his visit in Indiana. What happened along the way? Mike still didn’t understand. A rational part of his brain kindly asserted him that whatever happened, it was probably not his fault after all. This was an assumption which he knew would get lost in the chaos and resurface over and over again until the very moment they found Will and the truth could be declare.

”Good find,” Lucas said, patting Max on the back.

”I know.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Lucas rolled his eyes. They went back to searching. Mike wouldn’t give this calendar up. He held it as tightly as he dared to without ruining it, but as gentle as he would hold a precious treasure. This was the closest he’d get to actually get a glimpse into Will’s everyday life, all the boring things he wouldn’t necessarily tell anyone about because he thought. The casual notes made Mike ache. It was so tender somehow to read about the small things which, when added up together, made up a substantial part of someone else’s life. It wasn’t really like diary, because in a diary one would normally describe events and feelings which were important enough to mention, creating a very vivid visions of selected scenes — at least that’s how Mike used to write in his diary in high school — but a calendar provided a multitude of tiny things which gave a general overview of a life.

Mike noticed that the letter C reoccured in several notes and often involved activities unrelated to his classes. At one page (February 16th) Mike found a recipe, which he suspected was some sort of bread but some of the ingredients sounded oddly exotic. It was titled ’From C to W, enjoy!!’. Next to this there was a scrawny doodle of a happy face and a spoon. The handwriting and the drawing couldn’t be Will’s, so it had to be C’s. Mike smiled a little. If he had only known where to get those ingredients, he could have made the bread and had a taste of something that reminded him of Will. It was so stupid but it made him sentimental.

”Do you think C could be his boyfriend?” Mike inquired without looking up from the calendar.

He kept flipping through the pages. Will sure used it a lot. He noted everything, it seemed. If it was so important to him, how could he let it slip under the bed and leave it in the dorm when going back home? Was he that rushed before heading off to Indiana? Holding it made Mike feel fizzy. It felt like a breakthrough, although he wasn’t sure what the majority of the notes actually meant.

”I don’t know. C could stand for a bunch of different people. There’s Casper, there’s Celine, there’s Cameron… probably more as well. I don’t think Will is particularly close with any of them,” Rachel said.

She still appeared to dwindle when Mike mentioned the existence of a boyfriend. He made the assumption a while ago that Rachel must have thought of herself and Will as something more than friends and he was now ruining that idea little by little. He once again saw how Rachel and Will were very similar. He didn’t intend to tell Rachel, but he thought they were way too much alike to be dating, in addition to the fact that Will wouldn’t date a girl in the first place. As the cherry on top they both got their hearts broken by Mike’s heedlessness. He damned himself that that, but it wasn’t technically his fault that she didn’t realize Will was gay and mind her — he was also hurt by finding out that Will had someone else, so they were in the same boat.

While Mike was absorbed by the calendar, Dustin looked into the little closet in the corner. The door made a satisfying click-sound when it opened. He pushed some clothes aside, peered in and found a little box of some sort at the bottom. He lifted it out, took the lid off, chortled hysterically, slapped the lid back on and placed it back in the dark corner of the closet.

”What?” Jane asked. She curious reached for the closet doors, but Dustin gently took her hand off, shook his head. Her innocence and large eyes made her look like a child asking for an explanation, but Dustin just shook his head again.

”It’s nothing. Leave the closet alone. Nothing of value in there,” he said, very formally but on the brink of laugher. Lucas and Max looked up from what they were doing and started chortling too, without needing an explanation.

Will had made notes all the way into June and July already. Most of them were school related, but some were difficult to understand what they were. Single letters, symbols, mind-maps that made no sense, calculations… some of the scribbles seemed to be quotes or song lyrics but Mike didn’t recognize from where. There was also a list of titles, Mike assumed they were all novels, on the back of one page. He knew Alice in Wonderland, he read it in eight grade, and he had read Peter Pan as well. He hadn’t heard of the rest. It seemed just like Will to read old fairy tales despite his age. He was a bit like Peter Pan, Mike realized and a smile spread on his lips. Forever a child at heart.

They dwelled in Will’s room the whole afternoon. They didn’t find much of interest, only a conspicuous amount of Kit Kat chocolate in strange places and whatever Dustin had spotted in the closet. It made Mike feel a bit guilty since that meant they had rummaged Will’s privacy for nothing, but it was soothing to sit there in Will’s presence, surrounded by his things, talking about him in this wistful fashion. Mike felt his heart tender, it physically wrenched in his chest from time to time as though the room itself crushed it with its mere existence. The confession at the restaurant was impulsive but true — he did love Will.

When Mike, ignoring Dustin’s advice, opened the closet he got overwhelmed by the scent of Will’s clothes filling his nostrils. He didn’t look in the box at the bottom, he just discreetly nuzzled his face into a sweater, held it in a gentle grip and just pleaded: ’Please be okay. Please come back.’ And the thought of moving on in life without Will around made him feel nauseous. He stroke the knits and the jerseys and the cottons with his fingertips, longing to feel some sort of solidness beneath, but he always got disappointed by the feeling of the garments simply yielding in to his touch, vacant and lifeless.

Rachel told them stories about Will, about how he became a legend after drinking one of the big jocks under the table at the first freshman party and his hilarious bullshitting when he couldn’t tell his art teacher the true inspiration behind his work. She sat on the bed, curled up and cosy with her arms around her knees and her head titled back against the wall. She seemed a lot more comfortable now than she had did before. She didn’t get startled by every comment and glance directed to her. It was delighting for everyone, the whole room appeared less taut now.

”Will once painted Jesus with an ugly bowl cut in class. He couldn’t tell the teacher that it was a tribute to his younger self, purely comical, but you know how art people are, they’re so pretentious sometimes, everything needs to be deep and fancy. So, he couldn’t say the truth and the story he made up was the best I’ve ever heard!” Rachel laughed so much she couldn’t even communicate what Will’s explanation was properly. The rest of them only laughing because seeing her gasping for air was hilarious.

In return they told her stories from Hawkins. Mike listened and contributed with anecdotes from time to time, but he was mostly focused on the vast amounts of drawings in the room. There were countless of them, big, small, very diligently executed, quick sketches, everything in between. Some seemed to be for school, some just for fun. After driving around in the state for a bit Mike could tell where he got some of the inspiration, but some works were as mysterious as Will. Mike had no idea what he had drawn and what it represented.

In a folder he found a sketchbook in which Will made made a coherent collection of pictures of beautiful landscapes, rivers, hills, valleys, a quarry, woodlands and villages, all created with a supernatural touch. It did look like something from Neverland or Wonderland for sure. The branches of the trees were drawn like curlicues, the clouds looked magically fluffy and the water clearer and prettier than real water could ever be. In the right bottom corner it stated dates. Some of them were apparently made over three years ago whereas some had been made more recently.

There were frequently human figures in the works, as well as creatures that were clearly not human nor ordinary animals. In a way, they appeared to be more advanced versions of the drawings he used to make as a kid, the type of creations which Mike had an entire album filled with back at home. And what really got Mike curious was the reoccurring figure with the purple hat. Once he spotted the figure in one picture, well blended in with the rest, he didn’t even notice at first, he started seeing the same purple hat everywhere.

”It’s Will the Wise,” he mumbled to himself.

And when he looked closer at the landscaped it dawned all at once that he was looking at pictures of an alternative version of familiar places. The Lover’s Lake, the quarry, the hill behind the pumpkin patch with the abandoned old barn… It was Hawkins — it had to be — it couldn’t be so similar by coincidence. The only explanation aside would be to assume that Will subconsciously took inspiration from his childhood, but Mike felt it in his guts that this meant something, probably because he so desperately wanted it to.

He was at his absolute limit of self-control while stopping himself from saying anything. All he wanted was to get Rachel out of the way so he could tell everyone about this discovery. He refused to involve her in this, she’d never believe it anyway. He let her ramble on about Will’s relationship to his teachers and how everyone agreed that he was a promising guy, no matter which career he wanted to pursue. Mike simply waited for time to pass, tracing the outlines of the drawings carefully. He could almost feel the way they were familiar, although that was of course irrational since he had never physically traced the outline of the quarry in real life. It was just a gut feeling. He knew it had to mean something.

The biggest quest now was whether Dustin, Lucas, Max and Jane would believe him if he suggested that there could potentially be a third dimension. In his head he had already named it The Downside Up.


	5. Chapter 5

The bell above the door made a little tingly sound when Jane pulled it open. There was a lantern lit outside and a sign with the menu and the prices. There was a dark red rug rolled out from the entrance to the bar just inside. A middle aged man stood behind it, leaning on the counter and talking to a guest who sat at a chair on the other side with a large beer in his hand. The venue was dim and the wooden walls, floor, ceiling, everything was rustic and dark. It almost looked like a cabinet in the Austrian alps or a viking settlement. It didn’t match the slightest with the rest of the area surrounding the place.

It was hot in comparison to the evening outdoors. They had parked the car near the campus and decided to walk to a bar which they got name dropped by a guy they ran into in Will’s dorm hall when leaving. Mike regretted not bringing another layer to wear under the jacket but he refused to complain about it since Jane had specifically reminded him that it would get cooler once the sun set, and he naïvely choose to ignore her warning. His shoulders finally relaxed when stepping inside. The walk took them almost forty minutes, which made Mike wonder if that guy usually sprinted the fastest he could from campus to the bar since he claimed it took fifteen minutes or if he knew a shortcut he didn’t tell them about.

”Hello there. What can I bring you tonight?” the man asked them. He brought out a notebook from his chest pocket and a pen from behind his ear. ”You’re a little young to drink, aren’t you? We have the usual virgin drinks, sodas, good old juice, coffee…” He counted on his fingers as he listed the offers.

They ordered drinks and something light for dinner. There were only a handful of food options to choose from but they were all too hungry to bother looking for a different place to eat. Mike ordered a grilled sandwich with cheese and bacon and a Fanta, then he went inside to find somewhere to sit. There was a table for four in the corner. With Dustin’s assistance, they moved a table nearby to complement and sat down. Mike realized that he was really tired, the intense day finally caught up.

A slouchy group of elders sat a couple of tables away with their eyes on the TV screen near the ceiling and empty plates in front of them. They laughed hoarsely from time to time and commented the game. Aside from the elders and the man by the bar counter, there was a girl who sat in the opposite corner with a book and a cup of tea, an ensemble of twenty-something people drank keenly and chatted too loudly, sitting in the leather couch with the chunky chandelier hanging above, and some random groups who talked calmly over the smaller tables. It was altogether an alright place, it wasn’t too busy or drunken at this hour at least. It was still just eight p.m. and it was Sunday.

”Man, what a day!” Lucas sighed.

His posture was improper and he looked exhausted. The moment he started devouring his burger he looked a bit brighter again, but the common tiredness was still evident and none of them said anything as they ate. A grilled sandwich had never tasted so good, Mike thought. Despite not saying anything themselves, the voices coming from the other guests and the TV filled out the silence. It was actually really agreeable to just sit there, say nothing, think nothing, just eat and rest for a moment.

It wasn’t until they had finished their meals and most of their glasses were empty that Mike straightened his back and collected himself to speak. The rest of them noticed his manner and they turned to listen, eyes curious and inquisitive as if they already knew that he was going to say something crucial.

”I couldn’t tell you with Rachel around, but I think I should tell you why I insisted that we had to bring the book with the drawings along.” He waited for a reaction but when he didn’t receive one he took a deep breath and continued, finger tracing the edge of his Fanta glass nervously. ”So, I noticed that Will had drawn himself into the pictures. I saw, what I think was ,anyway, an updated version of Will the Wise. Remember the purple hat and the cloak he used to wear…? He wore it that day he lashed out on us. I thought it was ridiculous but I think the costume meant a lot to him.”

”He still has it in his room, I think,” Jane said, ”But he’s too big to wear it now.”

”Will the Wise was his alter-ego for many years.” Lucas nodded. He put one of his last french fries in his mouth and chewed slowly. Before he had even swallowed he had picked up another one, one of tiny ones at the bottom. He waved with it in the air. ”So… What does it mean, those pictures? Why is this a concern? I mean, he has made self-portraits before. Artists do it all the time, don’t they?”

”Yes, I know. I can’t really explain it, but I think you should take a look for yourself.”

Mike reached for the tote bag Rachel had offered him so he could keep the sketchbook protected. In it he also carried the calendar, a notepad with phone numbers, the letter and one of Will’s knitted scarfs. Mike claimed that he needed a scarf so he could wrap it around the valuable items so they wouldn’t get hurt, but that was just a more acceptable excuse that he came up with so he could justify bringing something that smelled like Will back home. 

He took the book out and handed it to Lucas. The cover was of an old-fashioned material that was hard to tell what it was. It looked like a linen fabric, nature colored and organic, but the texture itself was smoother and almost waxy. A red ribbon marker was attached to the book spine and there was a button at the front which you could secure the book shut with by pulling a looped band from the backside around it.

”It almost looks like the book itself is homemade,” Lucas noted, impressed. He opened it up at the first page. Jane leaned in from his left to take a look and Max leaned in from the right.

The first drawing was made using nothing but shades of grey and black fine lines. It was like an elevated sketch, but it didn’t look quite finished. Jane tilted her head to the side, investigated the picture meticulously but her face remained blank as if it didn’t mean anything in particular.

”You should look through all of them. I won’t tell you why I think they’re special until you’re done. I want you to see it with a clear mind, unaffected by my personal opinion, alright?” Mike instructed.

He waited patiently as they handed the book back and fourth. They ordered some coffee and took their time to really study the drawings. Dustin commented on how he was truly impressed by Will’s works, that he knew that Will was good even as a kid but it was hard to imagine just how good he would one day become. Dustin himself wasn’t too bad either, neither was Mike, but they were just about average while Will was way beyond. Lucas still drew stick figures and animals with their four legs lined up in a row which not even Holly — an eleven-year old kid — did anymore.

Finally, Max sat back, crossed her arms against her chest confidently and said:

”I know why they’re special.”

”Yes?” Mike eyebrow raised, full of anticipation.

”It’s Hawkins,” she said. He cracked up in a satisfied smirk. She reached for the book, Jane handed it to her, and she opened it at the right page with eager determination. She held it up for the others to see. ”This is definitely the quarry. No doubt about it. See, even the shape of the cliff is accurate! That’s the death tip and that’s the fallen tree where we found the hedgehog family that time, remember? Will must have gone there personally and made an exact outline from the view.”

”The colors are all wrong though. Will may have gotten the inspiration from the quarry but it’s not the actual quarry,” Dustin said, although he didn’t sound convinced.

The colors were indeed all wrong. They were warm and vibrant and absolutely beautiful. The quarry was normally barren and bleak, the hard rocks and the dull water beneath the steep made it an overall unpleasant place to be. It was usually windy up there too. Not to even mention deserted. Only dog owners and hikers would walk there, and adventurous kids, of course. But in Will’s drawing it seemed like a wonderful place. The trees looked healthy, the foliage flourished, the water had a conspicuous shade of turquoise and there were animals everywhere; some birds sitting on a branch, the hedgehog family by the log, rabbit ears stuck up in the background, a fawn slept peacefully with its head rested on Will the Wise’s lap. Will the Wise sat on a blanket, legs crossed, his face angled away from the viewer but with a visible smile on his lips.

”Okay, but look at this one!” Max flipped the pages again. This time she showed them the hill near the pumpkin patch, the one with the old barn. ”Come on. Don’t tell me you don’t see where this is.”

”Well, I’m not arguing with that, I can see that it’s Hawkins. I just don’t understand how this is supposed to help us find Will,” Lucas said, scratching his nose. ”Mike, what do you reckon? What was your original idea?”

Mike took a sip of Fanta, wiped his lips with the back of his hand. Jane was still paying close attention to the pictures, but Mike hoped she was listening. Jane’s opinion of this actually mattered more than anybody else’s. If she didn’t agree with it, they’d have to come up with something else, but for now Mike felt confident. He was onto something, he could feel it.

”When I saw these images —” he began tentatively, thinking as he was speaking, mind racing in every direction incoherently ” — I realized that it was Hawkins, but it’s not the Hawkins that we know of. It’s like an alternative version of Hawkins. And that — ” he paused, feeling as if the world was going to change drastically the moment he said it out loud ”— made me wonder if there could be yet another dimension that we haven’t been involved with before. It’s clearly not the Upside Down, it’s way too nice for that, so it’d have to be something else. A third dimension, an alternative reality or something.”

Jane put the book down. She stared at him, eyes wide open but impossible to read. Mike desperately tried to make sense of the silence that followed. What were they thinking? Did they think that he was going crazy? Did they believe him? He clenched his jaw, felt fidgety and sweaty all of a sudden. He begged with every cell in his body that they’d understand, or at least wouldn’t brush it off before considering it beforehand.

”So?” he nudged.

”A third dimension that is the opposite of the Upside Down?” Jane said, each syllable emphasized. She looked hazy, almost dizzy for a moment while tasting this idea. She shrugged her head, snapped out of the trance. Suddenly her eyes were clear and alert. ”A third dimension that is the opposite of the Upside Down.”

Mike nodded, though not sure exactly what she had meant by that statement, if it was approving or questioning or something else. It was as if time stood still. The rest of the bar felt obscurely distant. Mike was vaguely aware that the elders cheered, someone on the TV screen had done something great. At their own table Dustin, Lucas and Max had all clammed up like mutes, staring into nothingness like paralyzed. Lucas’ mouth was dumbly open. Jane and Mike were the only ones mentally present. Their eyes met, Mike shrugged as if to say ’oh, what do I know?’, crooked smile on his lips. Jane floundered for words but nothing came out. Instead she let out a snort like chortle, let her tongue click against her teeth. She shook her head in disbelief, although Mike could tell that she did actually believe it. It was so insane that they both started laughing, first nervously and then hysterically.

”Mike!” she exclaimed. ”This — what?! How?! This changes everything! Everything!”

She slammed her hands down on the table, making the plates rattle. She leaned over, Mike had to lean back against the wall behind him because her batty face came too close. He put his hands up, palm towards the ceiling, laughing. It was an almost spiritual experience.

”But no. Hang on.” Dustin shook the torpidity off, put a hand in the air as if to demanding them to halt. He had his eyes closed in that stupid Yale-kid way again, a deep crease across his forehead as he thought. Mike could almost hear a powerful engine working inside his skull. ”This is crazy. It’s a very bold assumption to make just like that.”

”Will does have a special connection to the Upside Down,” Max stated, sipping some of her drink through the straw.

”But this isn’t the Upside Down,” Jane said as she opened the sketchbook again. ”See, in the Upside Down everything is dark and there’s not much life anywhere. It’s cold. It’s a very bad place. Everything feels dead. Will’s drawings look happy. So much life, right? Animals, flowers, trees, people… It’s the opposite of the Upside Down.”

”Do you think that Will’s drawings could represent what the Upside Down looks like today?” Mike suggested. He leaned forward to peep down at the drawings. ”Do you think the Upside Down could change like that? Would it be possible for something to make the Upside Down a good place?”

”I don’t know. I haven’t been there for years and I never actually understood much about the Upside Down, you know? I was just a kid who did what I was told to do. I was very scared because the lab people never told me what was going on and I’m pretty sure they never understood the nature of the Upside Down either.”

”Guys, can we please go outside? I need some fucking air.” Dustin ran a hand through his curls, pushed his chair back.

They agreed to leave. Mike put the book back into the tote back carefully. They payed for their meals and stepped out into the night. It was darker outside down but it wasn’t much colder. Mike refused to use Will’s scarf because then it’d start smelling like him instead, so he just wrapped his denim jacket around his body the best he could and tried to relax.

They followed the same route as they had walked on the way there. Mike tried to find the shortcut but didn’t want to risk getting lost. There were no other people around, except for one smoking woman on the third floor of an apartment building at the other side of the road. If Mike hadn’t been so cold and focused on more vital matters, he would have enjoyed taking a look around. This was after all where Will spent most of his time these days and there was a park not too far away which the area was known for according to a travel guide Mike had picked up at a gas station.

”So, guys, what’s the theory? Will is not in the Upside Down but in a third dimension, is that it?” Dustin asked. This time his sounded humble rather than critical, as if he was really trying to understand.

”I don’t know exactly what the theory is, the thought just popped up in my head and I thought ’maybe this could mean something’. I mean, if a second dimension can exist, why couldn’t a third and a fourth and a fifth, you know what I mean? We have to acknowledge that there’s more to this than what we know. We have a lot to learn,” Mike said.

”Yes, but… Man, this is nuts. I can’t say that you’re wrong, it’s just a lot to take in.”

Their shadows look elongated and surreal but there was nothing creepy about it. The night was still and pleasant. The sky above was partially covered in clouds but the moon was still visible. The university building loomed in the distance, looking almost like a castle with its cupola on top. Some cars were parked along the street. A youngster biked by at a hasty speed, standing up as he pedaled, a lumpy jacket squeezed at the rack with one sleeve dangling behind.

”Mike, can I ask you something a bit personal…?” Max started, furtive look on her face. She watched Mike from the corner of her eye. He knew right away that this had nothing to do with the Upside Down but wasn’t sure if this was any easier to talk about. He turned his face towards the sky, away from her, didn’t answer, but she went ahead anyway, ”You and Will… what was the deal with you two, really?”

Mike traced the row of teeth with his tongue, nervously. He could feel their curious eyes on him. He kicked another non-existent rock on the street, pretend to be carefree and unbothered, although he felt a hot flush in his face and his throat seemed choked up, unable to produce a word.

”Ehm, well — ” he desperately searched for something to answer, the pause was way too long and it had started to get suspicious at this point ” — we were always quite close, I guess.”

While Mike avoided looking at Max, he accidentally made eye-contact with Jane instead. At first he got startled, she was the very last person he wanted to face right now, but she looked perfectly calm. She smiled a little. It was a knowing smile, an understanding smile. Mike fixed his focus at the asphalted street and didn’t say anything more. Max didn’t ask any further questions either. A silent agreement had been settled — don’t talk about it — just pretend this never happened, like always.

Every now and then someone knocked on the door, the closet door, as if they wanted to lure him out, but Mike only let them knock themselves tired until they gave up and left. It was the same way he handled the people who wanted to sell things or wanted his donations for charity. It made him irrationally nervous, so every time he spotted someone heading for the door he just hid in the basement and pretend to not even be at home.

Mike had promised himself to come out officially if he ever got himself a boyfriend though, given that the epidemic would come to an end eventually. He didn’t want to say anything now since the fear of the HIV virus was still prominent nationwide. And people made it very clear that Hawkins didn’t want any abnormal people in their neighborhoods, Mike’s parents included. They weren’t awful people, Karen and Ted, just raised with old-fashioned standards and crippling fear of the unknown.

Mike was half-way out of the close at this point though. His closest friends probably knew, hence why they came knocking on the door, but he had never confirmed their suspicions. He hadn’t told them about the guys at uni or Will, he only told them about the girls if they specifically asked how ’the game was going’. He avoided the topic as much as possible. Dreary makeout sessions, a hookup every now and then, some flirting maybe, but nothing much to say otherwise. What was there really to say? His ’game’ was mediocre, so to speak, despite the fact that he knew at least two guys and a handful of girls who he could get serious with if he wanted to — but he didn’t want to. These encounters meant nothing, it was just a matter of stress relief and momentary closeness if he felt lonely.

Will was the only one he would stay up all night for, just thinking, smiling like a fool, hugging his pillow, shedding a tear perhaps and Mike would never steal a scarf from anyone but Will to inhale their scent like a drug because he missed them so badly. Will was the only one he truly loved. He wouldn’t even ask for more if all Will wanted to give him was looks, gentle brushes as he walked past, smiles and conversations. It was more than enough, really. (Not that he would have any objections if Will wanted to kiss or get naked though).

But when Will knocked on the closet, Mike was so hideously stupid that he assumed it was locked from the outside and he couldn’t get out even if he wanted to — and he did want to, truly.

Everything would have unfolded itself differently if Mike had dared to push it. It was the worst type of irony how he, who was known for being so brave, allowed himself to lose so much to his fears. Perhaps it was easier to fight the Mind-flayer because he hadn’t had the time to grow afraid of him beforehand, he was just thrown into battle without premonition and had no other choice but to fight. His fear for his own feelings had built up gradually over so many years. Every disdainful comment from his parents, every joke from his classmates, every morbid news article and every preacher’s menacing message had given him a clear message since birth — His feelings were disastrous and they were going to make his life very difficult. How could he not be afraid of them?

But now, in retrospect, if Mike had only dared to face that fear and flicked it off like he called the Mind-Flayer a piece of shit that time, perhaps he and Will would be safe and happy together in this moment. Perhaps none of this wouldn’t have happened, and thus he wouldn’t have to face this new, even stronger fear — losing Will forever.

”Should we head back to Hawkins now or do we stay here? Or is there anywhere else we better go as well, now that we’re already out on a road trip?” Dustin asked. ”I’m not going back to school until we find him. Academics aren’t worth a shit if my best friend’s missing or dead.”

Mike smiled at this. Dustin was still Dustin, always prioritizing his friends. Someone who didn’t know Dustin Hendersen could easily make the faulty assumption that he was an emotionally unavailable smarty, but in reality he was the most caring, loving person ever. And yet, he had grown to be so formal in many ways, Mike really loved it when his unfiltered attitude beamed through. And now that he felt uncertain and vulnerable, he was immensely lucky to have his friends with him. If they stuck together like they always had, they’d conquer any fear, like they always had.

”Well, I sure ain’t going back to New York,” Lucas frowned. He pushed the glasses up his nose, smiling. This was followed by everyone’s agreement that they were going to keep looking. After discussing the various alternatives they decided to at least stay the night in the local area and make up a plan in the morning.

***

It took Mike a solid half an hour to unfreeze once he got inside. He crawled in under the duvets and pulled the hotel’s extra blanket on top. The ventilation whirred quietly. He could see the moon through the gap between the curtains and the window. Just like he did every time he went to bed, he pleaded that Will would be survive the night. On the nightstand beside the bed the tote bag containing the sketchbook and the calendar rested. In a weird way they almost seemed to radiate life, a presence that filled the room in the same way as a human person would. Mike was too tired to think about. He drifted off into deep slumber before he saw that the book had a feeble glow beaming from it.


	6. Chapter 6

”We could try to find some of Will’s other friends here on campus. I don’t think Rachel was lying when she said most people don’t know much about it and most importantly they don’t even care, but I still think it’d be worth a try. We should figure out the real names in Will’s calendar and find them. We know there’s no clues in Hawkins already,” Lucas said.

”Sound like a good idea to me,” Max shrugged. She lifted her tea cup to her lips, realized it was still too hot and put it down again.

They sat in the hotel’s dining hall, a cramped space with ill matched chairs and tables. A large mirror stretched from one side of the room to the other on one side of the room, windows lined up on the other. The view outside, which consisted of a little garden with a miniature fountain and a payphone, reflected in the mirror which made the hall appear much larger than it actually was.

The bright daylight was refreshing. Suited men and women had hurried down the stairs from the higher floors early in the morning. The street below Mike’s window was busier than it had been yesterday. It was Monday and most people were going back to their weekday routines. In the meanwhile, they were having their breakfast in peace — as far as peace could go these days — not caring about the young employee who wanted to close the dining hall at nine. He kept shooting them urging glances, which they denied by pretending to read his alluding as good morning-greetings and polite ’are you enjoying your meal?’-looks. The poor thing didn’t have the heart to tell them to get out but he orbited around them persistently, wiping the tables, rearranging the chairs, things like that. Mike heard him put a flower vase on the table behind him.

”So we head back to campus as soon as possible, then?” Lucas asked.

”It’s sort of useless to go back before we decode the meaning behind the letters, isn’t it? What are we supposed to do if we don’t know who we’re looking for? Not even Rachel knew who C was,” Dustin said.

”She did mention several names that could be C.” Jane stretched her arms up like a sleepy cat. Something about the way she way she moved that morning, her dreary stirring in the cup, her slow chewing, how she didn’t say much, gave Mike the impression that something was off about her. It wasn’t that overt, but Mike could tell because he knew her so well. Her flannel was buttoned incorrectly too but she didn’t seem to gave noticed. She snapped with her fingers a couple of times, searching for the words. ”What was it…? Cameron? Caitlyn? Something like that. I don’t remember.”

”Yeah, but she said that those people don’t even know Will that well.”

”There were other letters in the calendar too. D.H, D.T, L — could that be Lea? — K, M… there was a whole bunch, really. If we could figure out at least some of them, that’d be great. It’s worth a try, anyway, ” Mike said.

He was surprised by how optimistic he felt now. Since yesterday’s discussion he now had more faith in that Will was okay. He had no reliable proof of it, his theory about the existence of a third dimension was dubious and downright bonkers, but a foreign strength was budding inside and the feeling of hope was more profound now than it had been since the search first started.

”And I think it’d be stupid of us to rely too much on Rachel. Will is Will, right? He doesn’t tell people everything,” Lucas said. They couldn’t remind themselves of this fact enough because every time they thought they were making sense, they tended to forget that they were probably not even close to seeing the full picture. Everyone hummed gravely, as if this was the first time they had heard this statement despite the continuous repetitions.

”Just based off the fact that Will has mentioned a person called C so many times in his own personal calendar says a lot, doesn’t it?” Mike reasoned, sipping his lukewarm coffee. ”Rachel may not know who this person is and how they know Will, but C does exist and whoever it is, this person could sit on some valuable information.”

”Exactly!” Max nodded. She leaned her elbow on the table, her yoghurt spoon dangling between her fingers above the bowl, playfully. She lowered her voice a little, raised an eyebrow as if she was about to say something contentious. ”I actually got the impression that she doesn’t know Will that well at all. Did you? I mean, she seemed genuinely surprised by that Will likes guys — ” Max counted on her fingers ” — and she didn’t know that he used to be bullied, she had no idea who chief Hopper was although he’s literally like Will’s father at this point… you know what I mean? I suppose those things are difficult to talk about but it makes me wonder why he didn’t tell her, if it’s true that they’re so close.”

”I think the main reason why we know about those things is simply because we were there to witness it. Will never had to tell us since we knew already. I don’t think he wants to talk about it all the time and I can’t blame him!” Dustin shifted on the seat. He looked bothered but it was difficult to figure out what he was hostile towards, because it wasn’t Max personally. ”You know, I haven’t told anyone at Yale that my teeth are fucking fake and that I used to be bullied, because why would I? It doesn't mean that I’m not close with my friends from school, I just feel like the past it irrelevant. I want to focus on the present and the future, who cares what I used to be like when I was twelve? I don’t doubt it for a second that he’s close friends with Rachel, he wouldn’t spend so much time with her if he didn’t like her. I just think Will is being Will.”

”She probably knows things about him that we have no idea about as well,” Lucas added. ”But I sure hope that if she knew anything that could help us find him, she would have told us yesterday. Do you think she would hide anything from us?” His eyes wandered across the other’s faces, looking for a reaction. For a moment they were blank, still trying to assimilate this possibility.

”We don’t know her that well, but I doubt it. She does care about Will, she wants to find him too. I don’t se why she would hide valuable clues from us since we’re the only ones in this damn country who are trying to find him. Not even the police cares!” Mike gestured frustratedly with his hand in the air, then he slapped it to his forehead and rolled his eyes.

They had finished most of their breakfast. It was too expensive to not seize the opportunity to feast off the buffet table. There were three types of bread, some fruit cocktail, juices, coffee, tea, scrambled eggs in a heated container, creme cheese in tiny packages, yoghurt, cereal and a large variety of tiny jams in a bowl. It was overpriced but the breakfast was altogether pleasant. They were the only ones in the dining hall at this hour aside from an old lady sat alone by a table closer to the window for a while, newspapers in front of her, sipping tea from a cup that she held like a British royalty.

Some instrumental elevator music played at a low volume in the background. It was relaxing, but more ridiculous because the exact same song played on repeat everywhere in the hotel building like hypnotic mantra. Jane had started humming along subconsciously as she made company with Mike to the dining hall earlier that morning and it became a persistent joke how the elevator music had infected their brains permanently now.

”We have nothing to gain by staying here all day, do we? I think it’s a better idea to go to campus and try to match the letters with the names there, where we can actually ask people for ideas and stuff,” Max concluded. She scraped the last content out of her bowl and put it in her mouth.

”Agreed.”

”I think we better find someone who knows something about Will’s boyfriend. It should be our priority. Just because he hasn’t told Rachel it doesn’t mean that he hasn’t told anyone at all. I think Rachel is a bit keen on him, so perhaps Will tried to keep it secret from her so she wouldn’t get hurt or something. Finding Will’s boyfriend could be a major clue to find him.” Mike took a large bite of his toast. He washed it down with some orange juice and refused to look up, because he knew that — once again — everyone was watching him with great curiosity. ’Knock, knock, Mikey’. Nope, not today either.

”That’s reasonable,” Lucas agreed, casually, as if he hadn’t just stared Mike down shamelessly.

”You know, maybe we should give mr Clarke a call too? He was like a mentor to Will, wasn't he? After graduation he stayed in touch with Will a lot more than he stayed in touch with the rest of us. I think Will went to his house to drink coffee sometimes or something, I’m not sure, but I know that they are pretty close,” Dustin suggested this while wiping his glasses on a paper napkin.

They made up a plan and headed back to their own rooms to get their stuff. Lucas was the fastest so he went outside to use the payphone in the garden while he waited. They met up in the lobby and headed outside. This time Mike wasn’t fooled by the sun, he knew it’d get colder so he brought warmer clothes along in case they’d have to walk back late in the evening.

”Mr Clarke said that he didn’t know anything. He had talked to everyone he knew, including some really sharp FBI-dude that he used to play tennis with, I don’t even know what that was all about, but nobody had anything to share with us,” Lucas recapped, ”Oh, and I called some of the phone numbers that we found in Will’s dorm but they’re all just art supply stores, his grandpa, the bank, the school council, Jonathan and stuff. Nothing that is interesting to us, I’m afraid.”

***

The campus was simmering with activity. This morning the students walked in every direction across the lawn seemingly with a specific location in mind, some even ran (most of those who did also had messy bedheads to complement the ’shit, I overslept’-impression). Vivacious greetings and chatter filled the air with a constant stream of voices overlapping in an oddly harmonized way.

Mike noticed that there were a bunch of people who carried luggage like bags with paint stains and and stickers everywhere. Will had one of those in his dorm. Tainted fingers and creative (some were actually just ugly but Mike tried to be openminded here) outfits were a reoccurring trend as well amongst them. There were also students who were clad very modestly, water combed hair and aspiring businessmen all the way to the fingertips, as well as a vast majority consisting of bland people who were impossible to tell what they were studying. It was an amusing circus to watch how all these people coexisted in the same view.

”Okay, so… where do we start?” Jane swirled around, looking anxiously at all the people. Her face had regained some of its liveliest again and she had corrected the buttons.

Mike wanted to thank her for never giving up and for always trying her best even when she was under immense pressure, but out of coyness he decided not to say anything. She, if anyone, would know what it felt like for Will do get embroiled with the Upside Down. She was so compassionate that she probably suffered with him every minute of the day and for the first time since the very beginning of this disastrous chronology which had started in ’83, she was just a normal girl. He could only imagine how useless she must have felt since she couldn’t save everyone this time. Mike didn’t know what it felt like to lose your power and excellence since he had never had any of it to begin with. But he was truthfully not sure if that was any better.

”Mike. The calendar.” Lucas held his hand out towards the tote bag. Mike opened it and dug out it out, handed it to him without a word.

How would they ever be able to find the right C? The right M? There were hundreds of students, all flocked together like a herd of buffalos from a nature documentary, only making ’the great journey’ towards class instead of the waterhole or whatever. Mike put both hands on his hips, the tote bag hanging off his right wrist, and sighed, disgruntled and pondering.

”We could try to find a list of all the students here and then we try to narrow it down to which ones the letters could potentially be?” Dustin looked towards the entrance of the main building, through people streamed perpetual. ”There has to be a list somewhere. Or else we’ll have to ask.”

”I think we should look through every single page in this calendar first, just to make sure that we’re not missing anything. If we could just find a full name somewhere, we’d know where to start, right?” Lucas started flipping through the calendar.

In lieu of coming with additional suggestions, they started investigating the calendar further. They sat on the lawn, where the grass was still cold a bit dewy from the night, for a long while. The business around them gradually decreased as the morning lectures began. Mike lay down on the back, staring into the cloudless sky above. He fiddled with a strand of grass between his fingers. Jane, Lucas and Dustin were discussing something they had spotted at a page while Max went out on a search to find somewhere to get snacks and coffee. From time to time one of them exclaimed something like ’oh, look at this’ or ’what does that mean?’, but they never reached any valid results with their investigating.

Mike couldn’t bear paying attention anymore because the lack of progress made his optimism dwindle. At this point, almost twelve o’clock, he just felt like an empty shell. His mind had started running in directions like ’maybe the dead are happier than the alive’ to sooth his miserable self when he thought of the reality that Will could be dead already. The third dimension was just his heartfelt wish, something he wanted to be real but had no proof for. The memory of the Upside Down’s horrors flashed through his mind one after the other. The endless tunnels especially.

As they wandered through the tunnels, Mike wasn’t actually that afraid. He had his friends nearby and they had Steve, who would do anything to protect them. It wasn’t until years later, until Will vanished again just over two weeks ago, that he felt the crippling fright closing his throat shut, making his hands tremble. The mere memory of the Upside Down was more brutal than the experience of it. It had to do with age, Mike figured.

Children are wonderfully obvious to consequences and to their own mortality. An adult’s positive mindset could never measure against the unfiltered optimism of a child, the total freedom of not having a sense of right or wrong, expectations and preformed routines. Children also have the ability to love boundlessly since they don’t yet know that loving too much can get you badly hurt.

Mike wished he could get some of it back, just a pinch of what he used to have. When he heard his friends’ insights, arguments and ideas, all he could think of was how badly he wanted them to take a look at the calendar and see something untouched by maturity and intellect. He wanted them to see something and then have a completely irrational though pop up in their heads, and without weighing any pros and cons against one another and without thinking of the risks, he wanted them to believe wholeheartedly that it was right. And if it wasn’t, they’d come up with a new thought.

They used to be idea machines, the members of the Party. Thinking fast and reckless was apparently more efficient for solving problems. The cult of smartasses who called themselves adults didn’t help at all, they would have let Will die instead.

”Mike?” Jane called. ”Mike? Are you asleep?”

Mike shrugged, pushed himself up on his elbows. He felt like he just woke up, but he had been awake the whole time, just lost in his head and the vastness of the universe or whatever it was supposed to be called. Max had returned with something to eat and four mugs of coffee, which she had somehow managed to carry all by herself with only a small stain on her shirt. She put it down on the grass and sat down, opening a chocolate bar with feral impatience.

”Have you found anything?” he asked, but he didn’t want to hear the answer.

”Charlie.” Jane said this in the same blunt way as she used to say everything when she first escaped the lab. She slowly cracked up in a smile. She nodded, as if to amplify. ”Charlie.”

”Is that C?” Mike floundered. His pulse increased so fast it felt like he was about to have a heart attack. He sat up straight and reached for the calendar. Dustin handed it over, smug grin on his face. Mike looked down at the page which Dustin had opened for him.

It was one of the pages at the very end that were made for free note taking. In a cursive handwriting, Mike instantly recognized it as the same handwriting as the bread recipe, it said ’Charlie Evenbrook, The Apple Alley 8, Northon Harbor’. And just below it was a doodle very similar to the one next to the recipe of a smiling face, very simple, definitely not a sublime artwork but cute nonetheless. And a little heart, uneven and scrawny, but undeniably a heart.

”Holy shit!” Mike gasped. ”I didn’t see it, how could I miss this? I looked through the calendar like a billion times yesterday, I swear. I never… Holy shit. Well done, you guys, I — Holy shit.”

He looked up. Everyone had the same dumbstruck, happy expression on their faces. Suddenly they started laughing. Mike held his hand to his forehead at first, then over his mouth, then both hands cupping his cheeks. He must have looked like a fool, but he just couldn’t believe it. He was a minute away from giving up a moment ago, and now he felt flooded by hope again. This emotional rollercoaster was an intense ride but now he forgave himself and his friends for all their mistakes, because they had found the C and that was a breakthrough.

”The pages were stuck together,” Lucas said. ”See. There’s traces of glue there. Will didn’t want anyone to find this page, it seems.”

”Secretive jerk Will Byers, why do you have to make this so difficult for us?” Dustin laughed, shaking his head from side to side, teeth showing as he smiled the brightest he had done in a while. He ran a hand through his hair, exhaled heavily as if he had held his breath for too long.

They sat in silent delight for a while. Mike couldn’t pull his eyes away from what he saw. Max gave El a little hug and said a soft ’well done, guys’. For a moment it seemed like they had completed their mission, that this was the final goal. It wouldn’t last forever, but it was indescribable how nice it felt. They all shared the same intuition — they were now one step closer to finding Will.

”This is Will’s boyfriend for sure. There’s a heart there.” Mike pointed confidently and nobody argued with it. ”Wow. We found you, Charlie. Fucking finally.”

Right now he didn’t even care that Will had a boyfriend already, he was forever grateful to this Charlie for leaving them a clue — not just a name, but also an address. Mike had never heard of anything called Northon Harbor, he hadn’t seen any such address in the travel guide. There was of course a possibility that Northon Harbor wasn’t located nearby, perhaps it wasn’t even in North Carolina, it wouldn’t take too long to find it if they could just borrow a more intricate map in the university’s library. But first they’d try to find the name in the school’s register.

***

Mike and Lucas knocked at the door to the administrator’s office on the second floor. The door opened on ajar and a lady with round glasses at the tip of her nose peeped out. She had a mouse-like face, a tiny mouth with red lipstick and the glasses made her eyes look enormous like a cartoon.

”Hello. How can I help you?” she asked them in a mouse-like voice which fit her face perfectly. She had a pile of papers in her hands, looking as if they had just interrupted her in the middle of doing something. Behind her she had a tiny office with a stout stationary computer on top of a desk and endless of piles with papers everywhere.

”We’re looking for a name, m’am,” Lucas told her.

The administrator nodded and beckoned for them to come in. She dropped the papers on the desk and sat down by the computer, which made her look hilariously small in comparison. There was a feeble smell of disinfection alcohol in the air and an unpleasant lightbulb which fluttered annoyingly. and threw a sterile, cold light. Altogether the room felt more like a hospital than an office. It was incoherent to the rest of the school building, but so was the lady who seemed disoriented and confused, as if she didn’t even know why she was there and would rather stay at home with her eight cats instead of doing paperwork.

”So, what’s the name you’re looking for, sir?” Only the top of her head peeped up above the computer, a bun made of wispy, white hair and a wooden stick which went right through it. Mike had to stifle a laugh and Lucas nudged him in the ribs to stop, although he was about to laugh too.

”We’re looking for Charlie Evenbrook, m’am. E-V-E-N-B-R-O-O-K.”

Mike could hear her type on the computer. The sound of nails against the buttons was oddly mesmerizing. The lady didn’t say anything for a long while, long enough so that it started to get awkward. Mike eventually cleared his throat.

”Did you find anything?”

”Oh, sorry, boys, I forgot!” the lady squeaked. Lucas rolled his eyes but he didn’t get mad. This was exactly what they had expected, she was confused and fussy. ”What was the name again?”  
”Charlie Evenbrook. E-V-E-N-B-R-O-O-K.”

”And what do you need this information for?”

Mike and Lucas looked at each other. They hadn’t planned in advance what they were going to answer, but it wasn’t suspicious to ask for a name, was it? Mike had to ask for a name just the other week because someone on campus who was also named Michael had accidentally received his mail instead.

”We’re old friends but we weren’t sure if he was still attending this school,” Lucas lied. It sounded believable and Lucas was irresistible when he used his most polite, friendly voice.

The hair bun moved around behind screen and the she started typing again, humming to herself.

Mike weighed back and forth on his heels as they waited. The lightbulb was really obnoxious and he wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible. His experience of technology was that it mostly caused problems, he wasn’t as fond of the idea of robots as he used to be when he was in middle school, and when combined with senile grannies it was doomed to take three times as long as doing it the old-fashioned way. But then the administrator pushed her chair back, leaned to the side to see the boys, adjusted her glasses.

”I’m afraid we don’t have any student named Charlie Evenbrook here. According to my records we’ve never even had one by that name. Has he by any chance changed his family name?” she said and she sounded very collected this time.

”Ehm —” Mike looked at Lucas for directions, but Lucas looked at Mike for the same reason ”— No, in that case we must have gotten the schools mixed up. Sorry. Our mistake. Thank you for your assistance.”

They left the room feeling bemused but not surprised. They knew that there was a chance Will had met Charlie elsewhere, but they had high hoped for this move and now they joined up with their other friends empty-handed. Instead they would have to find the address.

They blended in immaculately with the actual students. The only issue was to find the library. There were numbers on tiny signs above each door and every hallway was marked with a letter. The stone floors echoed beneath their feet when they passed through an empty passage but muffled together with the sound of voices when they walked up the staircases where people loitered around. The walls were painted in a rusty yellow and the ceiling above had a resplendent structure of beams and vaults, giving the school an ancient European ambience.

On the top floor the light suddenly changed. The cupola they had spotted from the outside was right above them now. It allowed the daylight to shine in from above while the other windows let it shine in from the sides. As they had looked throughout all the hallways they could find at the lower floors, the library would have to be here or else it wasn’t in this building at all.

”Found it!” Jane said.

She had walked further down the hall and stood outside a door that looked just like every other door in the building, expect for the letters engraved which read ’library’ in a barely perceivable hue, just a little bit darker than the rest of the door.

For a library it was actually quite noisy. There were groups of students who sat around large tables amid the bookshelves, whispering and talking to one another, books and papers spread all around them in a coherent mess that Mike recognized so well. A librarian ambled back and fourth, placing books back at their right spot and helping students find the right material.

Empty mugs were stationed everywhere. They looked like an intentional installation, as if the school had commonly decided that every spare space available in the library must get filled up by a mug (on one of the windowsills Mike counted seven of them). A stuffed eagle hovered in the ceiling, its dead eyes looking into nothingness and its wings forever fixed in the same position. Bags lay distributed on the floor, hanging on the back of chairs and on chairs. In contrast to the hallway outside, the library was cosily dim and it wasn’t as spaciously hollow as the rest of the school.

”Let’s not ask the librarian,” Dustin whispered, leaning in closely. ”Let’s just try to find what we need on our own, okay? You never know, they may not appreciate having some random kids ransacking their library, they might get suspicious. And we don’t have any library cards anyway.”

The bookshelves, unlike the classrooms and the library itself, were very organized and had clear signs attached to them so that it’d be easier to find what you needed. Lucas found the department for maps and geography right away, but just out of curiosity Mike decided to idle around for a bit. He loved old libraries. The scent of the books was almost addictive and the aura was similar to his basement back at home, like an isolated bubble in an otherwise intense world.

”Mike!” Jane whispered. She beckoned him with her hand.

They had found a small table in the very back amongst the philosophy literature. They had already gathered some large atlas books in a pile and Max had started to look through the one at the top. Mike took a seat at a chair and brought out the calendar with the address again.

”The Apple Valley 8, Northon Harbor,” he read.

”Sound like an American address at least.”

”Well, an English address anyway. Could be British or Australian too, I guess, but it seems unlikely that Will would suddenly have a boyfriend from a foreign country, no?” Dustin looked at the others for agreement, but then Jane remembered:

”He wrote that he was going to Europe in August. Maybe. There were question marks. It’s in the calendar.”

”Oh, right!” Dustin nodded, finger in the air. ”But it doesn’t have to mean that Charlie is English.”

”Why don’t we search through the British islands for the address and the States and why not Australia at the same time? We might as well search everywhere since we don’t know for sure,” Max suggested. She turned the page and started scanning through a register of city names.

They did. And they did so for a long time. And for every passing minute they grew more puzzled, because they soon came to realize that there was no place called the Northon Harbor at all, as far as they could find after using several different sources.

”Maybe it’s a new place so it’s not registered in the atlas yet?” Mike wondered.

He threw a glance at the calendar again, just to make sure that he got the address right. He did get it right. His eyed traces the coast line of Wales again, still assuming that the harbor was connected to the sea because nothing else seemed rational, but just like the first two times he couldn’t find anything by that name.

”Possible,” Dustin said. He closed his eyes and hummed. Nobody interrupted his thinking, just watched him work quietly. Then he opened his eyes again, leaned back against the chair confidently, hands on the table. ”Okay. Next move — let’s try to find the name in a national register. Charlie’s apparently not a student here, but it’d be very useful to know if he’s a US citizen. If he’s not, we’ll have to search abroad. All of us don’t need to do this, we can split up from here. One group will try to get in touch with the US citizen and immigration department, the other group will try to figure out what the other letters in the calendar stand for, alternatively hunt down Rachel and ask her to make a list of all the people she knows Will has been touch with lately. Very pragmatic.”

***

Jane and Dustin had gone to find a phone so they could first make a call to chief Hopper, the only cop who was on their side, it seemed, and then to mr Clarke, whose tennis friend was apparently in the FBI if they needed more evidence.

Mike, Max and Lucas went out to look for Rachel. She had told them the previous day that she’d spend most of the day in the ceramic studio, which was in a separate house, a newly built thing a ten minute walk away from the main building. It took them a while to find it, but when they finally found the right path there was no fuss.

They knocked on the front door and waited for someone to open. It was an awful lot of noise inside, so after realizing that nobody would hear them they went inside anyway. They were met by a peculiar smell of mud and lacquer, as well as a sight which included art students in aprons, some sitting down with rotating platforms in front of them, some walking around with wooden tools and jars. Nobody even seemed to notice that they came in, including the teacher who was talking to a student at the other end of the studio.

At first they didn’t spot Rachel, but then she turned around and they saw her face. She was struggling with a blonde hair strand which dangled in her eyes. She tried to swipe it out of her face using her shoulder as her hands were muddy and occupied with the little vase in front of her. She didn’t notice them approaching.

”Hi, Rachel,” Max said when they were right in front of her.

She looked up, startled, and then smiled. She looked as sweet as yesterday, a bit more shy than how she acted towards the end at their search but still not as coy as when she first met them outside.

”Oh my, I didn’t see you, I’m sorry!” she giggled. She finally gave up and tucked the hair strand behind her ears with her fingers, leaving some clay stuck in it. She tilted her head a little to the side. ”Do you need the key to Will’s room?”

That wasn’t what they came for but they gratefully accepted it anyway. When they told her what they needed, she looked a bit overwhelmed, as if she hadn’t expected something to time consuming from her. She wiped her hands on a damp towel, looking a bit troubled.

”Yes, of course I will if that would be helpful to you,” she said humbly. ”I’m just not sure if I know exactly who Will has spent time with lately. I know some of them, of course, and I suppose we have many friends in common but I can’t guarantee you that I can name every single one.” 

”Any name at all could be helpful to us,” Mike assured.

”Of course. You can wait outside if you’d prefer to, I’ll be with you in a minute,” she said, nodding.

They left the studio and sat down right outside, their backs against the house facade and the sun shining in their faces. Mike had started to feel somewhat at home here already. It was surreal to remember that his own friends in Bloomington were probably wondering why he didn’t show up to his classes lately, just like people were wondering about Will’s whereabouts here. He’d like to think that they cared a little bit at least.

It was also strange to think that he was soon, regardless of whether they would find Will alive or not, going to return back to his old routine. He had to graduate no matter what since that degree was his one way ticket out of Hawkins. He refused to grow up to be like his parents. Will wouldn’t want him to, so if not for his own sake, he needed to finish his schooling for Will’s sake.

Mike had fallen into this new routine of being on the run, driving around, investigating, the emotional turmoil and the uncertain future ahead. It wasn’t the first time his life consisted of these elements, perhaps that was why it felt so familiar, but he was disturbed by seeing how fast a life could get flipped over, how fast things could change. He wondered if other people his age were conscious about that or if they lulled their way through life thinking that whatever they had at hand at the moment was going to last forever.

”Can I admit something…?” Max began, furtive smile on her lips. Her eyes were locked at a little flower which had just started to bloom. She played gently with it, held the petals between her fingers.

”Sure,” Lucas said, languidly.

”I sort of like this life,” she said.

She must had been thinking she exact same thing as Mike. It was almost scary, but it was also comforting. It wasn’t the first time he got the impression that the whole bunch of them somehow shared the same mind or were at least connected by something magical. Mike chuckled to himself, tilted his head back against the wall behind him, eyed Max from the corner of his eye in disbelief, waited for her to keep talking.

”You know — ” she adjusted her position and left the flower alone, letting her hands rest limply on her lap, ” — I feel like my life has so much purpose right now. It’s like ’okay, we have a mission’ and then we put everything we have into solving it, and I just feel like everything matters right now — literally everything, even the tiniest things mean so much right now! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m happy that Will has gone missing, not at all, I just like this feeling of knowing that the things I do actually matter. Like, who gives a shit if I go to a sorority party or not? Who gives a shit if I fail a class, if I have a part-time job, if I have a boyfriend, if I own a car, if I change my hair…? Nobody cares! I don’t even care! And that’s because it doesn't fucking matter when it all comes down to it! You know what I mean?”

She sounded so excited, her eyes gleamed as the sun reflected in them. Mike only nodded and so did Lucas, both grinning with that sense of knowing, the total understanding that they didn’t share with anybody else but each other. They didn’t even need to say anything, they all knew. Max shrugged, chuckled under her breath.

The studio door opened at last. Rachel came out with a paper in her hand. There were subtile mud stains on it but the list she had made was neat and pretty. She handed it over, dried her hands on her apron. She appeared to be in a hurry.

”I hope it’s enough. Just let me know if there’s anything more I can do,” she said.

”Thanks a lot.” Mike smiled at her. She smiled back.

”I’ll head back inside. Call me any time. I’ll be here.”

She disappeared in through the door again. Mike scanned the paper fast, up and down. There was a long list of names. It’d be impossible to find all these people but if they could only find one person who could say anything at all about Will, that’d be enough.

***

The afternoon slowly turned into evening. The sun’s warmth became milder and the sky had started to take on a pinkish hue. Mike, Max and Lucas had rushed up and down the stairs and chased after people in the hallways for hours already and they now found themselves sitting on the grand staircase leading up to the entrance, flummoxed and tired.

The paper hung lifelessly between Lucas’ fingers. He wiped a drop of sweat away from his forehead and looked out over the campus, his gaze bland and uninspired. Mike, who had been hungry since breakfast more or less, ate a granola bar and said nothing. Max had had the same stolid expression for a while now.

They had found a lot of the people name dropped by Rachel. Most of them had told the same thing — that they had no idea, that Will seemed fine before he left, that he was a great guy — and additional stories about how they had met him and the things they’d usually do together.

Most of them had the same perception of Will as Rachel had. They didn’t know much about his childhood, didn’t know that he liked guys and they had never heard of anybody named Charlie Evenbrook. This could be because Will didn’t want them to know that he had a boyfriend, but Will wasn’t stupid, he could easily make up a lie and say that Charlie was just a friend or whatever and nobody would suspect a thing. Never even mentioning Charlie’s existence to his closest friends didn’t really make sense. It was altogether weird, in fact.

The only person who provided anything slightly interesting was a guy named Lewis Nielsen. He was a tall fellow with a strangely long neck and auburn colored hair. His ambiguous clothing made it impossible to tell if he was one of the artsy guys or one of the economics majors and he somehow managed to dodge the question when they asked. (Mike didn’t mention this to Max and Lucas, didn’t intend to do it later either, but everything about this guy made his gaydar go kooky kooky).

He was also the person along with Rachel who seemed to know Will the best, which was probably why Rachel had put his name at the top of the list (only the name Harry was written above his, but Harry wasn’t to be found, apparently visiting his sick father or something). Lewis really took his time telling them everything he knew in a keen manner, despite being late to a lecture as a consequence of that.

”He’s a bit dreamy, Will,” he had said and it was obvious by the way he smiled that this was something he considered a good thing. ”Everyone says the same thing, the teachers too.”

Max wrote down everything everyone had to say on the back of the paper. She had to write so quickly to keep up with the storytelling that the notes were almost impossible to read afterwards, she even had to squint herself to distinguish each word from the other.

”Sometimes he goes on long walks and doesn’t tell anybody where he’s going, comes back late at night. He’d sometimes look a bit messy, happy, but messy. I’ve never asked him where he’s going and what he’s been up to,” he said, tone a bit darker than before. Mike was about to get worried, but then Lewis laughed to himself and continued in a lighthearted fashion, ”You know, for a while I thought he was smoking pot or something, but then we did it together once and he got so sick it wasn't even funny. I don’t think he’ll ever do it again, that first time scared him good.”

Mike was so amused by the thought of innocent little Will smoking pot that he couldn’t even focus on what Lewis was telling them about next. Max had to tell him afterwards when summarizing the chat that Lewis had told them that Will was never gone for more than a couple of hours at most and never during weekdays. It was only if he had excessive time to kill since he took school rather seriously, despite enjoying himself a good laugh from time to time.

Lewis Nielsen told them some funny stories and was overall a really cool guy, patient and friendly, but he couldn’t provide much more clues than anybody else. He also had an annoying habit of flipping his bangs out of his face, but it seemed like a legitimate tic so Mike didn’t want to be too judgmental about it, but everything else about him made Mike want to stay to talk some more — especially after chatting with three people in a row who were so bleak and boring to listen to that he had contemplated just taking a nap while they finished telling Lucas and Max their unhelpful malarkey instead.

But the friendship with Lewis was ephemeral. When they had elicited as much as they could out of him they exchanged some amiable handclaps and let him slither in to the lecture at last, although it was almost halfway finished at that point.

”At least we’ll be able to check this off the list now. We won’t find any clues here,” Mike said. He pushed the wrapping plastic down and took a bite. His legs were bouncing restlessly in the meanwhile. ”So I guess we’ll have to look elsewhere.”

”Let’s meet up with the other guys.” Max stood up, brushed some dust off her pants. She helped Lucas on his feet. ”They should be at the hotel now if everything went okay.”

***

Dustin and Jane sat on the couch by the TV-screen in the deserted hotel lobby, looking as though they had waited there for a long time. The TV showed an episode of Oprah without any audio. When the other group came in through the doors, both of them looked up and gained some sudden energy out of nowhere.

”Hey, guys. How did it go?” Lucas asked them.

Dustin raised to his feet, shook his head slowly, laughing as if he was going insane. When the other three sat down on the couch and the in armchair, Dustin sat back down as well, trembling like an old man. Mike knew that something was wrong, Dustin wouldn’t look this lunatic if there wasn’t a reason for it. Jane looked perfectly impassive like she commonly did, sipping from a glass of lemon water in the meanwhile.

”Guys…” Dustin began, then he started laughing for real, hysterically and so loud that the clerk looked alarmed at the other side of the lobby. ”Guys, can you believe this…? The guy doesn’t even exist!”

”What?” Max blurted, pushing her head forward.

”The guy — the Charlie Evenbrook that we’ve been looking for all day — doesn’t exist!” Dustin repeated. He didn’t blink. He looked absolutely batty at this point, Mike got genuinely worried.

”What do you mean he doesn’t exist?”

”There is no one named Charlie Evenbrook registered in the US. And it seems like there is actually no one who’s named that anywhere in the world. And the address — Apple Valley 8, Northon Harbor — is not an existing address either,” Jane explained serenely.

Everyone went quiet but Dustin, who was still laughing. Mike blinked dumbly. He didn’t even know what to think or feel. The stupid elevator music had never been so inappropriate. A woman in high heels walked in through the door and headed right up the stairs. Her heels clicked against the floor. Every sound came across as louder than it actually was because of the lack of voices. Mike rubbed his eyes and floundered:

”But… he even doesn’t exist on this planet? How can that —? How do we know for sure?”

”Could it be that he’s recently deceived?” Max suggested, although not sounding very convinced by this idea herself.

Dustin stopped laughing. He leaned forward over the table, making himself the center of the circle they had formed. His eyes were still shut wide open, not blinking. He had everyone’s full attention and they already knew that whatever he was about to say, it’d be very crucial for their progress.

”Don’t you see it…? This is Will fucking Byers, you guys — how could we be so stupid…?” he fumbled, head hanging like dead weight from his neck, hands covering his face. Then he removed his hands and looked up, now more collected than before. He looked like Dustin again, eyes shrewd and alert, voice rational. And so he explained, ”He made him up, alright? Will Byers made him up. Charlie Evenbrook is a fictional character that Will Byers made up. He literally doesn’t exist. He’s a fantasy creation. No wonder why nobody had ever heard of the guy. How could we not realize sooner?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentioned/implied abuse in this chapter! (non-graphic)

Mike decide to take a walk to that park after all, the one they didn’t see last night. The sky was getting more vibrant by the minute. He wanted to go alone. Max and Jane were chilling in Max’s room, Lucas had to call his boss who had started to get impatient and threatened with firing him if he wasn’t back by Wednesday and Dustin sat in the hotel’s miniature garden with a book when Mike left them behind.

They were back at knowing nothing and the disappointed was taking its toll on them. They weren’t actually mad at each other but the general level of irritation had drastically increased after the realization that they had wasted a full day looking for a person who didn’t exist, as well as the persistent feeling that Will had done everything in his might to make their search more difficult. If this was his intention or, they didn’t know, but his enigmatic nature had started to lose its appeal and was now a heavy burden more than anything else.

The park was pretty. Some of the trees were blooming, green leaves unfurling on the delicate branches and the grass around was neatly groomed around the grit pathways which ran in smooth curves everywhere. There were some kids playing soccer at in an encaged ratio and people walking with their headphones in, looking around them, probably feeling like they were a part of a music video or something. Mike sat down at a little bench beneath a young maple, one leg crossed over the other. For a moment he didn’t think about anything in particular.

He had the calendar in his pocket and when he started getting restless he struggled it out to take a look for the millionth time since finding it. He opened it at the page with the address and the name and the marks of glue. Charlie Evenbrook. It’d be just like Will to create a fictional character and a fictional address, sure, but that did not explain how the handwriting and the doodle could look so vastly different from Will’s own handwriting. Did someone else help him write it? Did he intentionally alter his lettering to make it look like someone else’s? Mike didn’t even know what to believe, but it just seemed too wacky even for being Will to gift himself an exotic bread recipe pretending to receive it from someone else.

When Dustin first presented his thesis Mike had accepted it right away, but the more he thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. There had to be a different explanation. If there was one thing they had learned so far in life it was that the government didn’t know shit about anything. Just because Charlie Evenbrook wasn’t listed in a national register it didn’t have to mean that he didn’t exist on the planet. Lots of people in the world were born without any formal papers, it wasn’t impossible.

”That’s cheating, you prick!” one of the kids shouted, making Mike look up.

”No, it wasn’t!” another one shouted back.

They argued wildly for a moment, none of them could provide any actual reasons to prove their point, they just called each other names and yelled furious denials repeatedly at each other — and then, just as fast as they started — they stopped and went back to playing. It only took a minute before they started shrieking of laughter instead. Mike smiled to himself, leaned against the back of the bench and watched them.

”Hey there.”

Someone had approached Mike from behind just as he was about to focus on the calendar again. He turned around, startled, and saw Lewis Nielsen standing by the maple’s stem, leaning against it casually as if he had been there for a while already. His auburn hair was conspicuous in contrast to the green leaves and he had to crouch in order not hit his head on the branch above. He had a striking resemblance to an ungraceful giraffe in this moment.

”I hope I didn’t scare you, did I?” he added, a little worried.

”No, no, it’s fine!” Mike leaned over the back of the bench with his arm, his body twisted in an uncomfortable position. ”I just didn’t hear you coming.”

”Okay, cool. By the way, do you mind…?” Lewis nodded towards the bench.

Mike scuffed over to make room next to him. Lewis sat down and sighed. He looked out over the park and payed attention to the soccer game for a while without saying anything. It was sort of awkward and Mike consciously made sure to look in every direction but to his left to avoid looking at the other.

”There was something I didn’t tell you guys before,” Lewis started. Mike had no other choice but to face him. Lewis flicked the bangs out of his eyes again, looked sort of anxious. Then he swallowed and kept going, nice and slow. ”You know, I have known Will since we were both freshmen. I think I know him better than most people, Rachel and Harry included. I told you before, Will and I have been hanging out even outside of school a lot. He came along to my grandma’s place in Cali the summer between our freshman and sophomore year. We stayed with her for a bit, but then we did a little tour on our own, drove around in grandma’s old ride, went to LA, San Diego, San Fransisco and all of that… it was great.”

Mike nodded. He still had the calendar in his hand but he shrouded it as good as he could at the other side of his body where Lewis wouldn’t notice. Wasn’t it a bit creepy to investigate someone’s calendar? It was almost like reading someone’s diary. Mike wasn’t sure why he was concerned about this now, he had literally ransacked Will’s room the previous day so he apparently had no shame nor morals at this point anyway.

”And then we drove to Nevada as well to stop by in Vegas,” Lewis told and he put more emphasis on this statement than everything he had said before. He paused, eyes locked straight ahead towards the soccer kids but he wasn’t actually watching them. Mike watched his face curiously for inklings. His face had the same fair, porcelain tone as Max’s, but unlike hers it didn’t have any freckles, just one eye-catching mole just below the lower lash line on his right side and a little scar near the eyebrow.

Mike got embarrassed when Lewis suddenly turned his head and caught him looking, but Lewis didn’t seem bothered by that, although there was clearly something he was bothered by because the anxiousness was still as prominent in his eyes.

”Since you’ve known Will for so long… are you aware about… you know?” Lewis nudged, cocking his head a little to the side.

”Oh, yes, of course!” Mike exclaimed too sudden, flicking with his hand in the air. ”It was sort of obvious all along, you know?” His posed with the best fraudulent nonchalance he could achieve. He realized a moment too late that Lewis could have implied something else, his suggestive phrasing could have referred to a myriad of alternative things and it made him tempted to just get up and run away, dig a hole somewhere and then lay down to die in it. 

”Yeah?” Lewis had a furtive allude in his eye, some sort of assuring grin on his lips and Mike knew for sure in that moment that he Lewis had meant exactly what he thought he did. He was now looking at Mike with great interest from behind the overgrown bangs for a split second before flipped them out of his face, and so the spark vanished and his face turned mysteriously bland. ”Well, in that case.”

Mike looked away again, this time to locking his gaze at two girls laughing a bit further away, sitting at a bench beneath by a tuliptree. He was suddenly very self-conscious. Mike recognized this panic so well, it was nothing new. His pulse was way too high considering that he had been sitting still for so long, but there was something so exhilarating about sitting next to someone who he could have told that he had that one thing in common with Will which-they-were-currently-talking-about-but-refused-to-address-with-words, because he was so certain that Lewis would say the same thing. Mike had it at the very tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t spit it out. He was just dying to try it, just to see what the words tasted like when saying them out loud.

Lewis crossed one leg over the other. He seemed to be thinking, his facial expression sort of troubled, his hands clasped together over his knee, seemingly oblivious to Mike’s distress. He clicked with his tongue, took a deep breath, raised both eyebrows as if saying ’well, here we go then’.

”Will would sometimes leave campus without really telling anyone where he was going, but he did tell me, at least at first he did, when we were freshmen. He went on secret dates with guys quite frequently. I don’t even know exactly how they met and who they were, I don’t think Will was ever that serious about them, it seemed very casual to me anyway,” Lewis said.

A man with a boxer dog walked past. Lewis clammed up immediately. He looked sort of terse for a moment, but once the man was too far away to overhear anything, he started breathing again, but his posture was still fixed in one solid position.

”Anyway…” he blinked, started over. ”Will would sometimes come back so late that he would barely get any sleep that night before heading off to the morning seminars. I’m a bit of an insomniac myself so I would see him come sometimes, just walking alone across the campus at four in the morning.”

Mike still waited for the momentum, because he could tell that this was just the prologue. He was full of anticipation, but polite enough to let Lewis tell the story properly. Lewis’ desolate tone of voice worried him. He didn’t know what to expect, but whatever it was he wanted to hear it. The sun was just about to disappear behind the trees. The lack of both light and darkness made the park look surreal. The kids were still playing but Mike overheard their comments about having to go home for supper and the approaching darkness.

”Will would often show up in class looking like he had been out hiking for a month. He had these scratch wounds on his face, I once saw that he had some on his back and on his arms as well. He had bruises sometimes too, big, nasty ones.” Lewis gestured with his hands, moving for the first time in a while. The image of Will that popped up in Mike’s mind made him cringe in discomfort.

”He concealed them quite well, but I saw them. Rachel noticed too. But you know, Will always told us that he was okay when we asked how he got them, didn’t say much more. Rachel did some research and we noticed this pattern, that every time Will came back after meeting these guys he looked like he had gotten badly beaten. And I thought that Will was so ashamed that he didn’t want to talk about it and I didn’t want to pressure him. I just told him to leave whoever he was seeing at the time and reminded him that he deserved better, then I tried to make sure he’d have a good time with me and his friends to let him think of something positive instead.”

Lewis paused. He looked at Mike and Mike looked back. There was something in Lewis’ expression that didn’t seem to match with the story he was telling, he was too unaffected, as if the abusive relationship wasn’t the tragedy in this. Mike waited for him to continue, Lewis took his time. He sighed deeply, shrugged his head.

”Mike, I don’t know what you’re going to think of me if I say this. Rachel says I’m in denial or something and I don’t know what’s the truth — ” he threw his hands up mirthlessly, when they landed on his lap he finished, ” — but I’m personally not sure that Will actually got those wounds by getting beaten up by some guy. I just have this weird feeling that perhaps that’s what Will wanted us to believe because he couldn’t tell us where he really got them from.”

”And where do you think he did get them from?” Mike asked.

”I don’t know. I know he likes to walk around in the nature, but I don’t think that’s where he got them from either.” Lewis itched his cheek with a slender finger, embellished with a chunky ring. As if he just remembered that he had it, he took the ring off and started playing around with it instead. It seemed to calm him to have something to occupy his hands with.

”So… what do —” 

”I suspect he’s up to something really weird,” Lewis said before Mike could even finish. He threw the ring into the air and caught it again. ”I just hope he’s not in a cult or anything. That would explain his sudden vanishing though. I mean, cults often attract young, vulnerable people and then they snatch them away, hide them in a bungalow in the woods somewhere, make them participate in freaky rituals and stuff. It sort of makes sense when listing it like that, but I never got any such vibes from Will. Dreamy, a bit of a weirdo, rough childhood — yes — but a cult member in New Carolina…? I don’t know. I’d like to think he’s wiser than that.”

The programmed street lights lit up all at once. The park immediately looked like a different location when the golden bulbs popped up everywhere along the path and the soccer field. The trees had started to look more like dark shadows, their shades of green and the blooming flowers were washed out by the darkness. They sat in silence an absorbed this transformation for a minute. Mike felt his legs feeling stiff from sitting on the hard surface for so long.

”Maybe Rachel’s right, maybe he was — or is — in an abusive relationship, but…” Lewis frowned in frustration, continuing his narrative from where he stopped just a moment ago. ”It’s just my intuition, you know? I truly feel like we’re being led on. Someone, maybe it’s not even Will, wants us to believe in this staged setup, wants us to believe that everything can be blamed on an abusive man when it’s actually a matter of something even more complicated.”

”I suppose you could be right,” Mike said, absent and pondering.

For a split second he contemplated just telling Lewis everything, it somehow felt unfair that only a handful of people from Hawkins were let in on the case, while everybody else were forced to be bystanders despite caring about Will with all of their hearts. But it wasn’t safe. It wasn’t right to embroil anybody into this, it was risky and it was a permanent decision that couldn’t be reversed. If Mike told him now, Lewis would never be able to live a normal life again. He had to bite his tongue and let the urge dwindle again.

”You’re cool, by the way.” Lewis shifted on the bench. He looked more casual again. He chuckled at Mike’s expression, which must have been a mix of sheer surprise and uncertainty. Mike swallowed and coerced his face to behave normally. He laughed at his own perplexity.

”You’re a good friend. I’m happy Will got to meet you,” Mike replied. ”You may not know what to do, but you care about him a lot, I can tell. And honestly —” he chortled, ” — I haven’t figured Will out either, and we’ve been friends since kindergarten, so don’t beat yourself up for not understanding.”

Mike’s head was full of thoughts when he walked the way back to the hotel a bit later. All the information they could get was valuable, but this only made everything more intricate. He had Will’s calendar in one pocket and a little piece of paper with a phone number in the other. This allowed Mike to consult it with his friends first, and then he could always give Lewis a call if they agreed that it’d be a good idea to include him in the clique. He was exhausted and overwhelmed, but also soft of happy.

This journey was an emotional rollercoaster, alright, and if so was the case, why not try to enjoy the ride in the meanwhile? He knew that it wouldn’t last for long, but he was at least happy that it was Lewis Nielsen who prowled up from behind and not one of those other people they had interviewed throughout the day. Like Max had said earlier — even the smallest things meant something these days. Every conversation that didn’t include crying and yelling was great by these new standards.

***

Dense clouds blew in over the state throughout the night. When Mike pulled the curtains aside in the morning there were traces of rain on the window glass and the view that had looked so bright the previous days now looked monochrome and torpid. Fog lingered in the air. The university’s cupola couldn’t be seen at all. The weather was oddly calming, it gave the impression of a slower world. At the street below he could see people walking to and fro, but nobody seemed to be as chattery and bubbly as they were yesterday.

He had told everyone about his conversation with Lewis the previous evening. They had exchanged some curious glances, discussed some potential explanations, but just like Lewis had said himself — everything pointed towards an abusive (”Or maybe just very kinky…?” Lucas had suggested, which got him pushed over by Max and Dustin’s rolling eyes in response. Mike pretended to find this idea ridiculous as well, but Lucas did actually have a point) relationship. Lewis, just like he had told Mike, based his doubt solely on intuition. He had no proof which indicated anything else, and he had no suggestions of where else Will could have gotten so badly injured.

Mike took a quick shower and tried to tame his hair before heading down to the dining hall. The same elevator music played today again, but at this point Mike had stopped finding it annoying and had finally reached a point of total brainwash — he enjoyed it. A feeble scent of soap pervaded the staircases this morning. When he passed the second floor he saw a man washing the windows using a soaked cloth and a bucket of water.

”Good morning, sir,” he man greeted.

”Morning,” Mike replied.

The lobby was as usual deserted in terms of other people. The clerk who was stationed by the counter looked more like a part of the interior than a human being, as if her frame and clothes seamlessly blended in with the rest of the room, and she moved so slowly that you barely even noticed when she shifted her position. She was friendly anyway, and when she understood (she must have overheard their heated discussions) that they had come all the way to look for their missing friend, she gave them a generous discount on their rooms to show her support.

When Mike came into the dining hall Jane and Max were already there, seated by the table which had come to be their favorite. The lady who looked like a British royalty walked out the door at the same time as Mike came in. The girls had already helped themselves some tea and coffee but had not yet started eating.

”Hey,” Mike said. He went straight to the buffet table and poured himself some juice. He sat down by the table and noticed immediately how they were both sort of quiet. ”What’s up?”

Jane stirred in her cup, eyes looking down at the bleak content. Her coffee always consisted of more milk and sugar than actual coffee. She didn’t show the salient signs of exhaustion anymore and her hair was braided into some sort of pattern that Mike had no idea how it was created, but she didn’t seem content at all.

”Mom called,” she said softly.

Mike blinked, flinched back a little. Jane didn’t seem to have any plans on elevating this statement, she was short of words and her face had its characteristic bland expression which let no-one know what was going on inside her brain. Mike turned to Max, gestured ’explain please’ with his hand. He let Jane remain in her little world together with her not-really-coffee without demanding anything more from her.

”Mrs Byers called this morning. Someone has been inside Will’s room,” she explained, voice sounding clear and concise. ”They went back to Maine when we left Hawkins, chief Hopper, mrs Byers and Jonathan. And they’ve been looking around and asking around just like we have but they haven’t really found anything. Will didn’t have too many friends at school up there, you know, and he wasn't really involved in the local community at all. But just this morning, this was literally an hour before mrs Byers called Jane, Jonathan went into Will’s room and someone had been there. Stuff had been moved, some clothes were missing, the bed’s duvet was gone.” She waved her hand in the air languidly.

The windows allowed grey light to shine in and the mirrors amplified. Unlike the previous mornings there was a tiny lamps lit around the room, not offering much light but just a warmth which balanced the cold nicely.

Mike hummed thoughtfully but didn’t comment.

”And there’s no signs of burglary, no broken windows, no damage on the front door, no footprints, no fingerprints… nothing. It must have happened during the night because the room had looked consistently the same ever since Will vanished — until this morning.” Max threw her hands up, palms towards the ceiling, shoulder hoisted to her ears, a ludicrous smile which clearly said ’I don’t understand shit right now’. She let her hands fall down on the table, sipped some tea and remained silent after that.

Lucas came in a few minutes later and Dustin came in last. Max and Mike retold them what had happened and they seriously looked like they were about to just get up and go back to sleep again at this point, but they stayed. Once they were gathered around the table they started eating.

Jane spent most of the time stirring her not-really-coffee, which was scarcely lukewarm and gross at this point. The rhythmic, circular motion of the spoon however seemed to sooth her so nobody tried to get her to stop, although she looked a bit batty with her hollow eyes locked straight down and her uncommunicative mumbles.

”Alright, so Will’s in an abusive relationship, his boyfriend Charles Evenbrook doesn't actually exist though, and someone has broken into the Hopper-Byers’ house without leaving a trace. Anybody who would like to contribute with some more disturbing insights?” Dustin asked with a bright, sarcastic smile, hands clasped together like an overly cheerful teacher. Then he dropped the act, sighed and ran his hand through his hair and groaned: ”You know, every time I feel like we’re on the right way some new shit pops up out of nowhere and ruins the whole thing. I’m seriously running out of ideas. How do we proceed from here?”

”But they have a dog, don’t they?” Lucas said. Mike asserted him that they did, indeed. The Byers had a five year old beagle named Lola, which they adopted from their ailing neighbor when he couldn’t take care of her anymore. Lucas stabbed a piece of bacon with his fork. While he chewed it, he continued, ”How does someone break into a house at night without waking up the dog? The dog would bark, right? There’s no way to get past a dog like that.”

”Has anything made sense for the past two weeks?” Max asked, then answered herself: ”Nope. We have to give up on logic here.”

Mike could feel the tension building up around the table. Everyone was frustrated and irritable, except for Jane, who was spacing out completely instead. They ate in silence, didn’t say anything for a long while. It had started to rain outside. The drops smattered against the windows in a soothing yet depressing way. Was this the end? Mike refused to think so, although he couldn’t stop feeling like they were getting ever closer to just giving up.

”Okay!” he cleared his throat, took on his best leader-voice, forced everyone to look up and listen to him. Dustin looked like he had already made up his mind that whatever Mike was about to say, he wouldn’t let it cheer him up. ”We need a plan for the day. One day at the time, right? Let’s do the best we can with what we have. Everything we can find out about Will is valuable information, even if it’s confusing and frustrating.”

Mike didn’t expect it to work, but Lucas straighten up and so did Max, and when Dustin saw the other two caving in, he actually did as well with a reluctant sigh. Even Jane looked up for a moment. Mike didn’t have any particular plan in mind, he just knew that they needed one. They couldn’t waste a whole day doing nothing but feel sorry for themselves when Will was still missing and possibly trapped in the Upside Down.

”Well, the only thing that makes sense to me would be to drive up to Maine,” Max said earnestly. She took a bite of her toast and shrugged. ”But I don’t make the rules, I guess.”

”No, you’re right. We have to see if we can find anything. Jonathan, mrs Byers and Hopper are sharp but they could miss out on something. We have to see if for ourselves,” Lucas agreed.

”It’ll take a while to drive up to Maine though. How long…? Could it be fifteen hours or so…? That’s basically a full day.”

”It’s worth it. We don’t have any better plan, do we?”

They discussed the different routes and somehow made peace with one another throughout the rest of the breakfast. Mike made sure to really stuff his face full with food because he knew that he’d live on fast-food from here since they were going to make the drive as rapid as possible. After settling for a plan everyone went back to their rooms to get ready, but Mike wanted to use the payphone in the garden first to let his mom know about his plan.

***

He opened the door to the little garden and hurried through the rain, into the phone booth and closed it around him. The rain dropped on the roof. It made him feel trapped in the rain but without getting wet, which was weird. The lack of elevator music made the booth seem eerily quiet too.

He could see Jane through the window in her room above. Her hair was wet, her face had a reddish flush. She stood near the window glass and looked out, face upwards towards the sky rather than downwards where Mike was. She looked less absent now. Mike felt a sense of delight by seeing that. They’d need her if the search took a turn towards something of an anomaly nature, and Mike needed her to be there even if she didn’t have any powers left. He wasn’t in love with her, but he did love her. They shared the immense feeling of gratitude towards each other, the common memory of saving each other. If she was crumbling, he needed to persist — even when he no idea how he was supposed to hold the shattered pieces together.

Mike pulled his eyes off Jane and put a coin into the machine. He dialed the number and waited for someone to pick up. He had to wait for a while, which was unusual. Karen Wheeler often waited by the phone, eagerly anticipating someone to call, she was never far away. She had a job for a while after Holly started school and didn’t need her to look after her all day anymore, but her routine of staying at home was too deeply rooted now and she truthfully seemed happier at home than at the office where she got hired to take care of dissatisfied costumer cases. 

”Mike?” Karen picked up at last. Her voice sounded out of breath, gasping in a way that made Mike on edge. ”Is it you, Mike?”

”Mom?” he replied. He shifted the weight from his left leg to his right leg, looked around him nervously. He could see the hotel employee wiping the tables in the dining hall, paying no attention to Mike. ”Are you okay?”

”Mike, you have to come home!” Karen whined. Her voice sounded a bit static, it was hard to tell, but Mike was fairly sure that she was crying. His grip around the phone tightened, his heart rate speeded up. Karen continued in the same frantic way and gave him no chance to interrupt, ”It’s Holly! She’s gone! Missing! Maybe it’s the same kidnapped who took Will! You haven’t found him, have you? Where are you? Are you okay? Oh, Mike, your father is going insane over here, he’s been crying non-stop and the police know nothing! She didn’t come home after going to that birthday party! She was going to make company with her friend Alice and they were going to be home by five, that was the agreement, but she never came! Oh, Mike, I shouldn’t have let her go… I’m an awful mother, aren’t I…?”

Mike’s mouth went dry. He blinked out of confusion, tried to instill what she was saying. He oughted to get himself one of those portable cell phones so he could be reached and call whenever needed. The birthday party was on the Saturday, he recalled vaguely, which meant that she had been missing for two nights already. Holly had never been away for that long, she was even hesitant to stay the night at a friend’s house because she got homesick.

”Mom?” he began, ”Mom, will you listen to me…?”

Muffled sobs could be heard at the other end of the line. Mike waited anxiously, tried to think of what to say. He felt horrid knowing that he had spent time during the past few days cackling over a meal, ambling around, admiring environments all while his family back home was in crisis. His best friend was missing and now his sister too. Mike felt guilty about every moment he had enjoyed himself, feeling a twisting remorsefulness in his chest for being so selfish. He wasn’t supposed to enjoy himself right now. ’Enjoying the rollercoaster ride’ was bullshit. This was serious business. How could he let himself forget?

”Mom, listen now!” he demanded. He tried to keep his cool by taking slow, deep breaths. ”I am currently in North Carolina, not too far away from Will’s university. We haven’t found him yet but working on it. I am okay, my friends are okay. That’s all you need to know about me. What exactly happened to Holly? Can you tell me everything you know? Nice and calm, okay? I can be on my way home right away if I need to come. It’ll be fine, alright, mom? Have you reached Nancy?”

”Nancy’s on her way,” Karen squeaked.

”Okay, good. Now, tell me what you know about Holly.” Mike closed his eyes, braced himself for getting overwhelmed by a flood wave of information and discomfort. The phone booth was chilly, he hadn’t noticed before, but now he felt frozen to the bone. He wrapped his arms around himself.

”Okay, okay,” Karen tried to collect herself, she took a deep breath, exhaled and did it again, ”I drove her to the birthday party on the Saturday. You and Jane were still at home then, I think. It was about lunch time. You left in the evening, right? So, I drove her. Everything seemed fine. She was very excited. The party was at the Davis family’s place, close to where the Bakkers live, you know, so it’s not too far away from home. Holly’s friend Alice is free to do whatever she likes, her parents don’t take much responsibility for the girl, and Holly wanted to feel grownup and cool, I suppose, so she asked me if she could walk home with Alice after the party since Alice’s parents wouldn’t pick her up. I thought it was terrible to let the poor child walk alone and Holly’s such a darling, I knew she wouldn’t do anything stupid, so I agreed!”

She had started out slow but gradually increased the speed as she went on. By the end she was as hysteric as before and then she started weeping again. Mike could hear her loud, wet sobs. It truly broke his heart. He couldn’t recall any instance when he had heard his mother make sounds like that. It almost made him cry too, but he tried to be strong for her. She needed someone to guide her through it, someone who could think rationally, and although Mike had never felt like the right person to do such a thing he was determined to be that person now.

”Okay, mom, I hear you. And then she never came home, is that right? She left the party with Alice and then she vanished on the way home?”

”Yes, Mike and she’s gone! Mrs Davis saw them leave together and everything seemed fine but she never came home! Alice came home though, I called her mother and she told me Alice came home safe and sound around five-thirty!”

”And nobody has seen her since? No reports? No traces left behind?”

Mike already had a gut feeling about this, he already knew what she was going to tell him. It wasn’t a coincidence. Everything was connected in some obscure way. Maine, Hawkins, Bloomington, the university… it had to mean something. Nobody could travel that fast back and fourth. It had to be a whole crew involved — or else there had to be a paranormal aspect to it. The images from Will’s sketchbook flashed apace in his head.

”Nothing! Vanished! Just like that! Someone must have kidnapped her, Mike, how else could that be? Some creepy old man must have pulled her into his car and then left Hawkins before anyone noticed! He’s gone, Mike, oh dear lord, she’s gone…”

Mike wondered where the hell his dad was, why he wasn’t there to help her have this conversation, hold her, just contribute with anything at all. He hoped that Nancy would hurry up since mrs Byers wasn’t in Hawkins anymore. Mrs Byers and Nancy both had a talent for never giving up, which couldn’t be said about Karen Wheeler, who’d lose it even under the slightest pressure. He just wished that someone could comfort his mom now that he wasn’t there.

”I hear you.” Mike held the phone in a trembling grip, feeling powerless and dizzy.

This was all way too familiar. He knew it was useless to make drastic conclusions, but he couldn’t help it. He could already see Holly, her blonde hair in a ponytail, her blue backpack, all alone in the murky tunnels he once walked through. The memories came back with ruthless force, he literally felt like he was reliving them. He stretched his hand out to touch the glass wall of the booth, just to make sure that it wasn’t slimy and veiny, that it wasn’t alive. The solidness was comforting. He didn’t even care about the hotel employee who could see him from the dining hall’s windows, who must have thought he was insane, which was probably true to begin with.

”Mom, listen!” Mike said. ”I’ll head back home as soon as I can, alright? She probably ate plenty at the birthday party, so wherever she is we know that she won’t starve any time soon. And she’s a lot stronger than she looks, take my word for that. And she’s smart, supersmart actually, so if she sees any opportunity to make it back home, I’m very sure that she will. We’ll find her, mom, okay? Take it easy, can you promise me that? Panic won’t help, alright?”

”Yes, Mike…” Karen whined. ”Please be careful, take care of yourself. I want all three of my children to be safe, that’s all I want, Mike… I wish I could do something, but what can I do…? I can’t even -”

”Mom. Listen. You’re doing fine. Just stay calm. We’ll take care of this.”

”Love you, Mikey.”

”Love you too, mom. I’ll call you again soon, okay? I need to talk to my friends.”

Mike dwelled in the payphone for another couple of minutes after they hung up. He was sure that if he tried to get back inside the hotel he would keel over, his knees would cave in. His face felt numb and cold. This was the very last thing he needed. That was the worst phone call he had ever had. He was so shaken by hearing his mother’s panic that he had to do all the calming exercises he had learned to prevent himself for having an attack. ’Panic won’t help’ was the worst advice ever, he didn’t know why he told his mom that since he could obviously not live by it himself.

”There you are!” Lucas exclaimed when he finally made it to the lobby. The rest of the bunch waited there with their bags and belongings. When they saw Mike’s expression, their faces dropped.

”Are you okay?” Max asked, although the answer was already clear.

”Guys…” Mike didn’t even know where to begin. ”I think we need to come up with a new plan. Holly’s missing.”


	8. Chapter 8

Mike let Lucas drive. He sat on the passenger’s seat, forehead against the window. The music on the radio helped a little bit with distracting his thoughts, but sometimes it just made his head even messier than it already was. Lucas glanced in his direction every now and then. They other tree sat quiet in the backseat. Mike had lost his concept of time already, the road ahead, the view outside and the perpetual sound of the engine and the wheels against the asphalt made it impossible to distinguish one moment from the other.

The drive back to Hawkins would probably take about as long as it took to drive the route in the opposite direction, but this time they decided to not stop for the night along the way. Mike was conflicted by the decision to drive back to Hawkins before heading directly up to the Byers’ house in Maine. It felt like choosing between his sister and Will. He had to remind himself, and his friends had agreed to this without any objections, that the cases were connected. If they could find Holly they’d also find Will and vice versa, and Jonathan had already confirmed that there were absolutely no traces left behind whoever had been in Will’s room for them to find anyway.

”It was nice to see his school and meet his friends though,” Dustin said in an attempt to be sanguine. ”I wish we could have met them under better circumstances but I still feel a bit closer to Will now that I’ve seen where he lives these days and heard some stories. I never knew Will was so wild!” he chuckled.

Mike lifted his head from the window and smiled a little to himself. Will had told him some stories when they met up that night at the cheap restaurant, but he hadn’t told Mike about drinking a jock under the table and smoking pot. Mike could only envision what it must have been like. According to Lewis Will only got sick and crawled around on the bathroom floor all night, but Mike still wished he had been there to see Will Byers high for the first — and probably last — time.

”Right,” Lucas said, eyes still on the road. ”And this was the first time I saw his art. His style has evolved a lot, hasn’t it? It’s cleaner now than it used to be, except for those fairytale versions of Hawkins that you found. They sort of look like he used to draw when he was younger, I think.”

”Lots of details and color,” Mike agreed, ”You see something new every time you look.”

His voice was hoarse and vague as if he was sick, but he was actually just exhausted and hadn’t said a word in several hours. The got in the car at ten in the morning at he hadn’t spoken since they ordered McDonald’s in the drive-through at twelve.

Dustin had the tote bag with the calendar, the sketchbook and the scarf in the backseat. He wanted to use the scarf as a pillow but Mike begged him to use something else. Dustin gave him a questioning look but accepted Max’s extra sweater instead without making a scene. At this point Mike could easily have told them. He was just afraid that it’d hurt more if he said it out loud now.

He preferred to not even think about his feelings for Will because all that really mattered right now was finding him. Mike even surprised himself by how easily he could ignore his romantic feelings. Sometimes he even forgot that they were there, he was so remarkably impassive for the discussions about Charlie Evenbrook and Lewis’ storytelling yesterday about Will sneaking out to see guys and going to Vegas alone with a male friend (who was sort of cute actually, with his gangly frame and awkward mannerism. Mike could see Will liking someone like Lewis, they would make sense together). But none of that bother Mike the slightest at this point. He just wanted to find Will.

His affection afflicted him at the most random times, such as when they ate dinner at that bar the second evening in NC. All of a sudden a wave of feelings washed over him. He just wanted Will to be there with them. He missed his smiles, his eyes, the innocent way he laughed and the silent bond they shared that they didn’t share with anybody else of having known each other for so long. Mike just wanted to have him close, he just wanted to see Will sit at the chair at the opposite side of the table, eating a grilled sandwich, just being himself and being present and being happy.

Mike didn’t even know what he was supposed to do with these sudden afflictions. It felt like getting his in the face and all he could do was take it because there was nothing and no one there to hit back. It hurt badly. The lack of proximity made his body feel inhumanly shallow, as though he was just a shell. Humans need closeness, Mike was assured, but he didn’t understand heartache until now. This wasn’t like just missing someone. It was like every cell in his body craved him, as if Will was supposed to be pressed against his chest because he was literally a part of it and he belonged there with his face nuzzled into the nape of Mike’s neck — and yet he wasn’t.

Will had gone missing and he had taken a vital part of Mike with him. This was something he tried to not even think about because he felt so small and helpless against the reality that his pleading couldn’t bring Will back. The only thing that could bring him back was to keep going. It truthfully didn’t have as much with strength and determination to do as the fact that there was simply nothing else he could do, he didn’t have any other options to choose from.

***

The closer they got to Hawkins, the more familiar the environment became. Mike was seating by the steering wheel with Lucas fast asleep beside him after driving for so long, his glasses in a funny position. They had switched spots just an hour ago and Lucas decked out right away. In the backseat Jane and Max were sleeping with their heads rested on top of each other while Dustin was playing something on his gameboy (he got hilariously upset if someone pointed out that it was a toy, he insisted wholeheartedly that it was a ’device’ and for that exact reason Mike seized every opportunity he could get to refer to it as a toy). He pushed the buttons aggressively and hissed under his breath from time to town. Mike could tell merely by those sounds that Dustin had his tongue sticked out between his lips and his brows pulled together in fury, he didn’t even need to look in the rearview.

It was almost six in the morning. The sun had started to rise but wasn’t visible yet. The sky had a surreally pretty color scheme consisting of pinks, purples and oranges. Mike was rarely up this early so he hadn’t witnessed a sunrise in a while. It made Hawkins look vibrant. Mike had to apologize to the town for calling it boring and ugly in the past, although one valid reason why the town seemed so lovely now could also be because there were barely any people outside ruining the wonderful aura. Once the inhabitants of Hawkins crawled out of their homes the town wouldn’t be as pleasant anymore, Mike thought sneeringly.

But despite his contemptuous feelings towards the community, he always felt a sense of comfort when coming back. Hawkins was after all his home. And the main reason why Mike didn’t like Hawkins was simply because the people in Hawkins didn’t like him. If they could just stop treating people who didn’t behave, dress, sound and think like the majority as a bunch of plague carrying rats, Mike would have felt a lot more positive about the town since that was really his only complaint about it.

Mike had practiced his driving on these streets so many times that he knew the by heart. He knew all the stops and curves and he could find any location in Hawkins without a second of doubt. When he first got his license he used to drive around solely for the sake of driving (and also getting some privacy) and it had become a soothing therapy almost. But today he held onto the steering wheel tautly and the closer they got to the Wheeler’s house, the more anxious he got. He didn’t know what to expect. Would he come in through the door and find his mom crying on the floor? The furniture flipped over? A window smashed? His father apathetically slamming his head against the wall?

From the outside the house looked like normal. That was his first impression once they rolled up at the parking. Mike parked the car next to the other one. He poked at Lucas to wake him up. There were no indications of life in the windows from the parking side. Mike hoped that his parents were asleep and Nancy had arrived already. She was supposed to be here and she was usually on time. 

”We’re here…?” Jane mumbled, rubbing her eyes. When she saw the color of the sky she crooned, voice still sleepy but excited. ”Oh, how pretty…!”

”What time is it?” Lucas asked. He looked down on his wristwatch before anybody could answer. He pushed the door open and a breeze of fresh, morning air blew into the car. It felt heavenly after sitting in an enclosed cabinet for so long.

Mike stepped out on the other side. He stretched his arms up, stomped around a little on the spot to wake up his legs. The scent of Hawkins’ spring filled the air. Mike didn’t know what it was, but the springs in Hawkins didn’t smell the same as the springs in Bloomington. The temperature was lukewarm and pleasant. If they hadn’t come for a very different reason, they could have walked around the block, just embracing the morning.

Prepared for not getting let in by anyone, Mike dug out his own keys out of his bag before stepping up to the door. He put the key in and opened the door carefully. It was completely quiet inside. For some reason it felt like he had just returned home after being away for a decade or two. Thinking about the fact that he had been at home just a couple of days ago made him a bit dizzy almost, it made him feel like he had lost the grip and was just stumbling around in his own world where time was distorted and the everything orbited around finding Will like the planets circled around the sun.

Mike strolled through the corridor, peeped his head into the living room. It was empty. The TV was shut off, two empty whiskey glasses stood on the living room table, last week’s newspaper laying in the armchair. The flowers on the windowsill looked healthy so someone must have cared for them at least. He looked in the kitchen too, which was equally deserted. Some finished dishes stood on the counter, a towel placed on top of the pile. The clock on the wall was the only sound in the house. For a second Mike feared that both of his parents and Nancy had gotten kidnapped too.

He walked back and headed upstairs. The rest of the bunch were getting their bags out of the car, Mike could hear their distant voices vaguely and the sound of the trunk shutting close. The door to Nancy’s old room was open on ajar. The door to Holly’s room, his old, and the master’s bedroom were both closed.

”Mike! Jesus, you scared me!”

Mike thought he just had a heart attack, he grasped at his shirt and had to catch his breath. Nancy had come seemingly out of the blue, but she actually came from the bathroom. She had just showered, clad in comfortable clothes, looking tired but healthy otherwise. She pulled Mike in for a hug. Even after seeing her, the feeling of being startled lingered on. 

”You scared me, holy shit!” he muttered, trying to calm his poor heart down.

”Sorry. Didn’t hear you coming.” She laughed into his shoulder before letting go.

The happiness of seeing each other again after some time apart didn’t last for longer than that. The absence of Holly was a presence in itself, solid and real, filling every corner of the house throughout. It made the house feel cold, almost menacing. It wasn’t the same house that he had left before driving to North Carolina. It made him feel lost despite being at home.

”Where’s mom?” he asked bluntly.

”I couldn’t handle her alone. She’s with Auntie and Nana. I think she’s okay. I don’t know where dad is. I haven’t seen him for a while, but you know how dad is…” Nancy said, scratching her elbow. Then she eyed Mike up and down, smiled a little, tilted her head to the side. She dwelled for a second, just looking at him, before reaching out to tousle his hair. ”You look like a man, Mike!” she exclaimed, the dejected expression dissolved.

”I am a man!” he replied, trying to fix his hair back to the way it was before — flat, neat. Or at least that’s what he wanted it to look like. The car’s air-condition and intermittent napping had probably made it look questionable.

”You weren’t last time I saw you,” Nancy said after a pause that was a second too long. There was something strained in her voice but she swallowed it down. Then she laughed, put a sassy hand on her hip. ”You still don’t know how to style your hair though. But I like this better than the fluffy bowl cut mullet thing you had going on there for a while at least. It suits you. You should let it be messy though.”

She went inside her bedroom, which was now filled with Jane’s belongings as well. Mike followed her but stopped at the threshold, leaning against the door frame. Nancy didn’t fit in this room anymore. She was almost thirty but the room was definitely still a teenage girl’s room. Not much had changed since Nancy moved out.

The walls were still striped with babypink and white, the bed with the metal headboard remained stationed where it had always been, the drawers were partially still filled with the same clothes as she used to wear when she lived at home, although some of them fit differently now that her figure had gained some more volume and curves. If Jane had had a similar fashion sense as Nancy, they could easily have shared the same closet, but Jane wouldn’t wear Nancy’s frilly old dresses for anything in the world.

Mike hadn’t noticed his own aging, but hers was very clear to him. The fact that they hadn’t seen each other in so long made him sad. They were still close, but their days of living together as one united family were over, probably forever. It was upsetting to think about Holly, who was so much younger than both Mike and Nancy, who lived as a single child most of the time and missed out a big chunk of the sibling experience that the older two shared.

”So, how are you, Mike?” Nancy asked.

She picked out a hairbrush from a drawer and started running in through her hair, making wet drops of water to fall to floor. She gave him his full attention, not minding the sound of the rest of the group coming in through the front door downstairs. Mike sat down on the bed, one leg crossed over the other. He wasn’t sure so he didn’t say anything in response, but that apparently said enough.

”Yeah, me too,” Nancy replied to the silence, chuckling understandingly.

She put the bush back and pulled out the chair by the desk. She sat down, face towards Mike. She truly looked old. It wasn’t in her appearance, it was her aura. This was something Mike hadn’t seen before. It was probably because she was currently overworked, sleep deprived and troubled by the recent events. Mike told himself that she’d get her youthful glow back when everything was fine again, but he feared that she wouldn’t. He must have aged a hundred years in the past two weeks as well, he was just happened to be blind to it.

”It’s been a lot lately,” Mike said at last, ”I certainly didn’t see this coming.”

”Me neither. None of us did.” Nancy traced the decorative shape on the back of the chair with her finger, not looking at Mike. ”I thought it was all over.” Nancy didn’t sound too bothered by this. Her facial expression was sombre, but her voice was an almost eager, it had a wild undercurrent to it. Mike thought it looked like she had to stifle a little smile. He remembered what Max had said and despite the twitching guilt, he still thought there was some truth in it. The misery brought some meaning back into their lives, reminded them of what was valuable and what wasn’t.

”When did you hear about Holly?” he asked.

”Oh, it was yesterday. I gave mom the number to my cellphone but I don’t think she’s used to that she can call me any time so she waited until I got home from work. It was probably at six. I hurried over right away.”

Someone came up the stairs. They creaked familiarly. Jane soon peeked into the room. She greeted Nancy and gave her a hug. Then she slumped down on the bed next to Mike. Jane was technically a Byers and she only referred to Joyce and chief Hopper as her parents and Will and Jonathan as her adoptive brothers, but she was sort of a Wheeler too. The basement became her first home after escaping the lab men. Mike actually found it disturbing to think that they used to kiss and be romantic with one another in their early teens. It wasn’t weird at all at the time of course, but now it was strange to think about in retrospect now that she blended in so perfectly as the fourth Wheeler child. It was only natural that she was in the room with Mike and Nancy in lieu of being downstairs with the rest.

”So… do you have any suggestions right away?” Nancy asked them. ”Did you find anything new regarding Will?

”It’s very confusing,” Jane said flatly.

She didn’t seem too keen on explaining everything. They had gone over and reviewed the same thing so many times over that it was unbearable to do it all over again. Mike, who realized that they had no other choice, recapped as much as he could remember to Nancy, who human thoughtfully but didn’t contribute with any of her own ideas.

”You guys know Will better than I do, but we have to remember that Will had a bit of a rough childhood. It’s actually very common that people who have been — ” Nancy hesitated, searched for the right word ” — mistreated —” her face twisted in a dissatisfied way but she continued anyway ” — end up in similar situations again.”

”What does that mean?” Jane asked.

”I just mean that Will is traumatized. By several different things, even! If his behavior doesn’t make sense to us it could be because his acting out of repressed distress or something, I don’t know, I’m not a psychologist. Maybe he doesn’t even know what he’s doing!” Nancy remarked, hand gesturing in the air.

”But he’s literally gone, Nancy! He has vanished, dissolved, left this world or something! And his past trauma doesn’t explain how someone managed to steal stuff from his room without leaving a trace behind and why Holly has gone missing too. It’s too weird to explain with past trauma!” Mike objected. He let his body fall back on the mattress, eyes staring into the ceiling above. ”Besides, aren’t we all a bit traumatized after what happened…? I just sort of forgot about it until Will disappeared again. This whole thing sure brings back some memories I’d rather not remember at all.”

While they remained in silence they could hear Max, Dustin and Lucas downstairs. Someone opened the fridge in the and they were helping themselves something out of the kitchen cabinets. The faint sound of porcelain could be heard as well as their low voices. They had probably not even realized that Karen and Ted were not at home, that there was no need to be quiet to prevent waking anyone up.

”I didn’t mean that it would explain everything,” Nancy said at last, almost insulted by this assumption, ”I’m only talking about his bruises.”

Jane’s eyes wandered back and forth between Mike and Nancy. Mike had no comments to this and Nancy seemed to collect herself, preparing for a small lecture that Mike desperately didn’t want to hear. He avoided Nancy’s face, knowing that it was stern. Jane didn’t even seem to catch the hint, which was perhaps for the better. She, if anyone, knew what it was like to be ’mistreated’. There was no word in the English vocabulary strong enough to describe what she had been through. She probably had her obliviousness to thank for being as sane as she was after all.

”Trust me, I’ve met women who are strong and wise and brilliant in every way, and yet they seek themselves to assholes who don’t treat them right,” Nancy started, forcing Mike to look at her and pay attention. ”I don’t know why exactly, but one of them explained it to me that she feels at home in relationships like that because she doesn’t know how to cope with people’s kindness. She grew up with an abusive father, just like Will. Jonathan never told me everything, but what that man did to them, especially Will, is so much worse than we could ever imagine. It’s a miracle that Will is so positive and sweet, but realistically speaking I don’t think he’s doing as okay as he seems to. Maybe his distress just manifests itself differently from the typical PTSD-sufferer, that’s why we didn’t see this coming, we missed all the signs that led up to this.”

Mike sat up again. He rubbed his face. It felt like someone had just stabbed him and then twisted his guts. Without any premonition his eyes started watering. He wiped the tears away the best he could but it was useless. Nancy had just hit a sensitive spot he didn’t know existed. He hadn’t thought about that aspect at all, selfish as he was.

”Mike?” Jane said softly.

”Fuck…” he groaned. ”… you’re right. Maybe he was in a good deal of pain but we never noticed and then it just bursted? I guess I’m a moron for believing in some random guy’s intuition more than actual evidence, I just don’t want it to be true.”

”Nobody wants it to be true, Mike. We love Will. We don’t want him to be with people who hurt him.”

Jane stroke his back. Mike damned himself for letting her. She was crying too now. He needed to stop being such a wimp, he needed to take care of Jane, Will, his mom, his friends — everyone — but he was always getting emotional and whiny instead. Perhaps Ted Wheeler was right all along? Mike dried his face on his shirt sleeve, took a deep breath.

”But we still don’t understand much. This doesn’t explain everything,” he said, ”But for now, let’s focus on Holly.”

***

They had gathered in the basement, eating some sort of breakfast although it consisted of whatever they could find in the unusually empty kitchen. Karen had clearly not gone to the store in the past couple of days. The basement had never felt so welcoming. The lifeless, impersonal hotel rooms never offered the same feeling of safety. This was Mike’s place, his basement. Not even Holly’s absence could reach them down there. He knew this place so well. His existence echoed between these walls. His personal scent was mixed with the scent of attic wood. His bed had shaped itself after his sleeping patters and the music playing on the stereo was of his own choice. Any incoherent meal tasted sublime as long as it was eaten in the basement. Everything was fine down there.

Mike sat on the couch next to Max. Jane sat in the armchair, Lucas on a pillow on the floor, Dustin on a chair which he had pulled over from the table, where the game of D&D was still set up and abandoned. Nancy leaned against on the pillar, balancing a plate on one hand and eating with the other. Everyone had some sort of food in front of them and despite not feeling hungry. Mike tried to force something down at least. Not eating wouldn’t help them the slightest. They had to remind themselves to sleep, eat and rest whenever possible. Nothing good would come out of not taking care of themselves.

”I reckon we better just search through all of Hawkins — again. We didn’t find anything last time, but since Holly clearly vanished when she was somewhere around here, we may find something at least,” Mike said, unexcited and doubting. He hoped that his face wasn’t streaky so Dustin, Max and Lucas wouldn’t be able to tell he had cried. ”The thing with Will is that we literally have no idea where he was he vanished. He was in Bloomington with me on the 6th, but we don’t know if he had left the area or not before vanishing. With Holly it’s very unlikely that she ever left Hawkins. She must have gotten abducted somewhere along the way between the Davis’ place and home.”

”No, it’s an even smaller range we’re talking about here — ” Nancy interrupted, shaking her head no, ” — because she made company with her friend Alice most of the way. She literally walked alone no more than a mile and a half or something. It’s not far. And the route is a well known street, it’s not a suspicious little path in the woods or anything. And it wasn’t late at night, it was probably not even dark outside.”

”Oh. Right.” Mike scuffed further up on the cushions. He shoved some mashed potatoes in his mouth.

”Well, let’s just investigate that route, then?” Max suggested.

It sounded too simple to be true. Mike already had a feeling that they wouldn’t find anything, it had to be more complicated than that, but it was worth a try. It was a good start, anyway.

”Yeah,” Jane said, nodding. ”Let’s do it.”

Suddenly Dustin started chortling to himself, almost choking on his food. Lucas dunked him in the back, laughing. Dustin coughed a couple of times, eyes watering a little. He managed to swallow. He put the plate on the table, held a hand up to excuse himself.

”Oh, god… guys, I just remembered — ” he breathed, coughing again, ” — We won’t be able to do a thing without Steve! Where is Steve?! We need him! He saved the day countless of times back then! He’s so fucking stupid, nothing he thinks or says makes sense and neither does this mission so that makes him perfect for this!”

Everyone laughed at this, the mood lightened up like a magic spell whenever someone mentioned Steve. Mike had thought about Steve a lot lately, he was always present in the flashbacks from the tunnels, but he hadn’t thought of calling him or asking him to come with them. Mike hadn’t seen him in a while. In his head Steve was still a newly graduated guy in a stupid sailor costume. He was now happily married to a girl and worked as an elementary school teacher. He did an amazing job at the school. Mike couldn’t imagine Steve working with anything else. He was meant to take care of kids, although it took him a while to accept that fate.

”He’s in Michigan,” Nancy told them, smiling. She wiped some sauce from the corner of her mouth. ”It’s not too far away if we’d like him to join us. I’m sure he’d be delighted to. He misses you guys. Robin does too.”

Nancy, Jonathan and Steve stayed in touch. Robin never stayed at a location for more than a couple of hours at the time, working as a traveling journalist and activist for a progressive organization, so they only received post-cards a couple of times a year in which she told them briefly about her life and told them that she missed them. Mike also read some of her articles in secret. She was bold, Robin. He admired her bravery. He’d never have the balls to publish anything so controversial. Nancy also read her works, she even had some of them tacked to the wall in her kitchen. Mike noticed last time he visited her in Indianapolis.

”I mean…?” Lucas nudged, alluding. ”Why not? All the help we can get is very much needed, right?”

”Sure,” Mike agreed. ”I think it’s great that we’re spread out. Mrs Byers, Jonathan and chief Hopper are in Maine, we are here in Hawkins, and Rachel and Lewis are in North Carolina. Those are the three locations where Will has the strongest connections and some of my classmates are keeping their eyes open for signs around Bloomington, which is where he was last seen. We’ve got this covered. Let’s do this.”

With their spirits recharged and stomachs full of fuel they decided to do something as trivial as sleep. Dustin refused to call Steve at this hour because he knew that Steve wouldn’t listen, he’d be too grumpy and tired to even consider driving out of state. It was still early in the morning and Mike hadn’t slept coherently for more than an hour at the time since he kept switching places with Lucas and had to drive half of the night.

Lucas slept on the couch in the basement and Mike in his bed while the others headed upstairs. Mike hadn’t slept that well in a while, he literally passed out the moment he lay down. While he drifted off to a distant dream and the watch on the wall ticked closer to eight-thirty o’clock, Mike made up his mind. Just like Lewis he had no proof, but he knew, yes, he knew because he felt so vividly in a way that he couldn’t explain with words, it was an almost spiritual experience, that Will hadn’t gotten his bruises from an abusive jerk. He had gotten them elsewhere, Mike just didn’t know from where. Yet, anyway.

***

When the time was eight-thirty they left the house to investigate the range from where Holly had disappeared. Mike felt confident about this. With Steve on his way and a positive aura lingering in the group, the faith in their search had been restored anew.

The beautiful sunrise sky was gone but it was still a nice day. The walk to the location was incongruously serene considering the fact that they were looking for a missing girl and the general likelihood that the Upside Down had reopened a gate in Hawkins. They kept their eyes open for overt inconsistencies, but from the road there were no such things in sight. They were going to follow the same route back so that they’d walk in the exact same pattern as Holly had walked previously.

The main road ran along the woods, but never right through. There were some smaller paths created by dog owners and hikers, but Holly was only twelve years old and she had never been that interested by nature and getting dirty. On the right side, coming from the Wheeler’s house, walking towards the Davis’ place, there was an open field on which the farmer and his son were now preparing the lands for the season. The tractor made its way back and fourth in the distance, making the birds in the way skip into the air, leaving visible tracks behind in neat rows.

They could be potentially be walking right towards their own deaths to the tunes of Jane’s and Max’s interpretation of the Backstreet Boys. It was so obscene that Mike preferred to not even think about it. It was hard to even imagine any abnormal activity in the area since everything was so ordinary. But that on the other hand applied just as much to the previous encounters. The total obliviousness which pervaded Hawkins’ community altogether was almost supernatural itself. How could nobody notice the thing that happened around them?

”It must have been somewhere around here,” Nancy said, stopping for a moment. She pointed. ”Holly and Alice must have parted at the intersection over there. The distance which she walked alone runs from this point and back home.”

The intersection was visible in the distance. If one turned right they’d head towards downtown, if they turned left they’d end up in the neighborhood on the hill where the Wheeler’s lived and if they continued past the houses they’d find the bakery and the post office not too far away. Before the street parted it ran far off into the distance, disappearing in the bushy environment, curving the farmer’s properties and eventually off to the community pool and the neighborhood where the Davis lived, a nicer area where the houses were old and grand. Holly always envied the kids who lived there, Mike thought they were haughty assholes, but that was perhaps just his impression because Troy Walsh happened to live there back in the days.

Mike took the initiative to start looking. He skipped over the ditch which run along the side of the road and struggled his way further into the woods. Dustin and Lucas followed behind. They spread out and started making their way back again, eyes attentive, searching amid the trees and the fallen logs and the moss. It was difficult to see far with all the foliage blocking the view. Mike had to dodge some branches and had to watch where he put his feet in order to not slip and fall. He hadn’t been in the woods like this in a while. The smell was intoxicating, so fresh and vivid.

”There’s no crawling vein-things like the ones last time. Remember those in the tunnels?” Lucas said. Mike couldn’t see him but he heard his voice a bit further away. ”And there’s nothing rotten either, like the pumpkins.”

”Right,” Mike replied.

The sound of birds could be heard coming from above and there were some droppings left behind hares or small deer. He avoided stepping in it the best he could. Jane was a bit ahead. Her steps could be heard as she stepped on branches which snapped under her feet and the dried leaves which hadn’t moldered under the snow throughout the window. Mike was happy that he choose his combat boots instead of the sneakers because there were puddles of mud here and there, hidden beneath the layers of dry material, very fraudulent.

”Guys! Over here!” Dustin called. He had walked even further away from the road, into the woodlands. His voice came from pretty far away. Mike pushed a branch aside and tried to make his way towards the voice. Dustin beckoned them again. Nancy and Max trudged behind.

Lucas and Mike almost bumped into each other when they both dodged below a branch. Lucas adjusted the glasses on his face. He had a little stick stuck in his hair but Mike didn’t mention it. They soon saw Dustin. He was knelt down by a large log, looking at something closely. Mike couldn’t see what it was until he got really close.

”What do you think?” Dustin asked. He pointed at a little bracelet which lay amid the leaves. It was made out of colorful, plastic beads and Mike winced back before hurrying closer. Dustin picked it up and handed it over. ”Is it Holly’s?”

”Yes. She makes them. She has a whole collection of beadings and threads and charms and whatnot at home. It’s definitely hers.” Mike held the bracelet gently, caressed the little beads with his thumb. He looked up, right into the endless woodlands. ”She must have gotten dragged all the way in there,” he concluded.

”Unless she went in by her own free will,” Nancy remarked, showing up at his side from behind. The crisp air had given her rosy cheeks and she was little bit out of breath. She looked at him, then turned her face towards the wild bushes ahead. ”Do you think she would do such a thing?”

”Only if she was lured in by something.”

Mike couldn’t possibly understand the truth behind what he just said. The momentary vision that popped up in his head was dark and murky. A horrifying monster disguised as something pleasant holding its hand out to Holly, and as the naïve child she was, she took its hand and so she got dragged into the wilderness, screaming for help, in a desperate attempt to break free she lost her bracelet right here by the log.

If Mike had seen the unusual fawn amid the trees that Holly had spotted when she walked home from the birthday party, he would have known that his vision didn’t coincide with what actually happened at all.

The fawn in question had a lovely ribbon tied around its neck and it looked a lot like the one sleeping on Will the Wise’s lap in that picture Will had drawn. It was friendly and so innocent it almost hurt to see it walk on the Earth where so much evil existed. It didn’t belong in this world and certainly not in the Upside Down either. It had a soft aura, like a glowing halo, around it. Holly had never seen such a thing before.

And then the large eyes, dark as a warm summer night, met hers. She knew that she was supposed to go straight home because she had promised her mom to do so — but just how was a she supposed to resist following the magical fawn when it almost seemed to be asking her if she wanted to come along?


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> To be completely honest with you I'm really unsure about this work. Every time I reread what I've written to edit and prepare it for posting, I always start to doubt myself. I'm writing fanfics for fun and for practice, I know that it's nothing serious at the end of the day, but I always feel like my works aren't good enough and it sucks because I really spend so much time writing them. The plot and the characters always come across so much better in my head than when I try to translate them to actual text. And I'm always torn between feeling like I'm rushing through scenes and dwelling for too long on insignificant details.
> 
> Sometimes I seem to get to caught up in what I personally want to write about, like my own thoughts and fears and whatnot, and thus I lose the thread and start writing about things that honestly don't have much to do with the actual plot line. But at the same time I feel like my plot isn't enough to carry the story alone, there needs to be some subplots and character development or something extra as well, or else it'll be too bland.
> 
> And this is weird because I think fanfiction rarely needs much plot anyway. I don't know why I keep thinking that I need a super intricate mission to make it interesting. I enjoy fanfics that are literally just my fave characters doing whatever, I don't really care if it makes sense or if it's realistic?? But every time I try to write something short and easy, I feel like I'm not doing enough, that I need to do more and better or else it's not even worth posting because nobody's going to read my low-effort half-assed works. At least that's what my brain's telling me.
> 
> I don't know why I'm spilling my thoughts like this, I'm really not hoarding for compliments or anything, I just wanted to say it I guess - I'm trying my best. And no matter what I'll keep writing because I love to do it. I suppose the meaning behind this note is just that I'm begging you to be patient with me, because hopefully my future works will be much better than this one and my previous fics.
> 
> And thank you for reading. Seeing that someone's reading means a lot, really. Take care of yourselves, alright? All the best to you!

They kept making their way deeper into the woods, slowly, so that they wouldn’t miss any clues. The fact that Dustin spotted the tiny bracelet was a miracle in itself. The further in, the denser the woods got. They crossed paths with the hiking trails a couple of times, but they never encountered any other people. Mike had been in these woods many before. Castle Byers was located closer to the neighborhood where the Byers lived, but it was still a part of the same woodlands. It stretched a far distance, served as a mass that connected Hawkins areas and chopped the community into separate pieces it at the same time, depending on how you choose to look at it.

”She can’t have gone as far as the Lover’s Lake by her own will,” Max said, albeit not sounding convinced. ”This must mean that something kidnapped her, something bigger and faster. Or else there must have been a gate somewhere around here and then the beast vanished through it and brought Holly along and now the gate is gone and that’s why we haven’t found anything.”

She brushed her hair out of her face. She seemed in need of a break, but determined to keep going. She, like most of them, had funny pieces of organic material in her hair, on her clothes and occasionally in her mouth. Jane had walked right into a spider web which draped between two stems just a while ago. The threads still stuck onto her like sticky glue. Mike had something in his shoe, it had been there for an hour already, but he didn’t want to stop to shake it out.

”I mean, she could have gone there by her own will — ” Dustin said, finger in the air ” — but if she did go that far, she would have arrived way after sunset. She went home around five-six p.m or so, right? It’d take her a while to get to Lover’s Lake even if she hurried.”

”She’s afraid of the dark,” Nancy informed them. ”I doubt she’d go into the woods in the dark by her own will.”

”But there’s no traces of Upside Downy things anywhere. No goo, no rotting, no blood, no random holes in the ground, no broken trees or creepy sounds… This forests looks very healthy, it doesn’t look like a monster has been here lately,” Jane said. She was walking around with a stick which she swung around and poked at things with restlessly.

No comments. They knew that already and it was getting strange how peaceful the woodlands were. There was literally no signs of the Upside Down. This made Mike question it anew whether they were actually dealing with the Upside Down at all this time, or if it could possibly be something else that was also supernatural, yet different from the dimension that had previously been involved with. He didn’t mention the Downside Up theory anymore because he was only making them more confused, and just like with everything else he had no proof to support the idea. All he wanted was for Steve to hurry down from Michigan so they could get some comic relief and new perspectives on things.

”By the way, did I mention that I got fired for being absent?” Lucas brought up out of nowhere. He chuckled to himself, although it was obvious that he was disgruntled about this. ”The fucking jerk didn’t think looking for a missing friend was a valid reason to not show up at work! Can you believe that?! So I don’t have any job to return to when this is over. ’Rest in Peace Lucas Sinclair’ is all I have to say. I have no savings so I won’t be able to pay for the rent this month and then I’ll get kicked out. This is the beginning of the end, my friends.”

”Stop being so dramatic, Lucas!” Jane laughed.

She poked at him with the stick. He shrugged and muttered something about being an employee at McDonald’s, which made her poke at him with the stick again to stop complaining. The whole scene was pretty amusing. Anything that could elicit any sort of reaction was worth something since the endless of miles of nothing but trees and shades of green had started to get slumberous.

***

The woodland became less dense, an open view revealed itself, the lake centered in the middle. They stood on a higher point, looking down. They’d have to climb a slope to get to the ground level. A staircase had been built sometime in the 1950’s, but since nobody cared much for it the structure had gotten frail and damaged by the weather conditions over the years. It was now so rickety that it was safer to climb down stepping on the boulders and the natural plateaus.

The water was perfectly still. The nature surrounding it got mirrored on the surface, but the colors were distorted by the dark shade of the lake. Mike knew that the lake was much deeper than it looked. The shallow depth where the water met the land only extend about fifty feet before plunging into a bottomless abyss like an underwater steep. Mike always found the lake unsettling for that reason. The memory of seeing Will’s lifeless body getting pulled out of the dark didn’t make this reencounter any more pleasant. 

”If she’s not here, she’s not in this world,” Mike said, stopping at the edge of the woods, unwilling to go any closer to the water. He held his hands against the rough stem of a tree. He couldn’t even feel his legs at this point. They only moved by automatic routine. Now that he paused for the first time since starting the long walk he realized just how badly he needed to sit down.

”Why did we walk all the way here again?” Max asked.

”Because we found the bracelet on the way and we have now searched through all of the woodlands that stretch between Hawkins and Nebridge so we can at least check that off the list,” Dustin said blandly. He seemed to remind himself more than Max. He wiped some sweat off his forehead and sighed.

Nebridge was the neighboring town, located just to the West on the map from Hawkins. The towns had very little to do with each other, it was only during festivals and holidays that people drove to the other location. The only thing they had in common was the Lover’s Lake, a lake which had gotten its name because of its heart shape, nothing else. It was a hostile place. Only people who were into wildlife and fishing found the lake to be a local treasure, but it wasn’t useful for anything else. Mike would never swim in that water, never. It radiated an aura which made him think of poison and corpses. Just how many people had drown in that lake in the past? Mike was convinced it was way too many.

Mike sighed and stepped forward, into the sun which beamed from above. They hadn’t seen the sun a lot since the towering trees above shrouded it. Being able to see the sky above was liberating somehow, the endless woods had started to feel encaging. He held his hand as a shield to not get blinded.

”This took way too long, you guys, we’ll be stuck here forever because I’m not walking all the way back again now, I’m telling you!” Lucas exclaimed. He sat down wit his back against a tree, breathing hoarsely. Max, who was the only one clever enough to bring a water bottle, drank a mouthful and handed it to Lucas.

”Save some for later,” she told him, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. She put her hands on her hips and looked out over the lake, taking the view in. ”I’ve never been here before. Is this the lake that where the police found the fake body?”

”It is,” Dustin replied. ”Those assholes from the lab sure did everything they could to hide the truth from everyone. If chief Hopper hadn’t figured it out, we would probably still believe that Will drowned in the lake today. They almost got away with it.”

Jane took the initiative to climb down. She almost slipped as the soil beneath her started sliding, but she managed to stay on her feet by sticking her hand out. Nancy and Max followed her closely behind. Lucas sighed and took his time to get back up from the moss. He brushed his pants off and walked up to Dustin and Mike where they stood just by the cusp of the downslope, watching the girls head towards the lake. Mike’s disapproving facial expression must have looked hilarious because Dustin chortled when seeing it.

”I know, Wheeler, I know…” Dustin assured him, patting him on the back. ”But let’s just get this over and done with, alright?”

Dustin and Lucas started making their way down. Mike followed with great reluctance ten feet behind, carefully, unwilling to get dirty, fall and roll down the slope. An empty beer can lay amid the rocks. There were some remains after a bonfire closer to the water too. Rocks had been placed in a circle, burned sticks lay in the middle, a thin layer of ashes at the bottom of the structure. A Kit Kat package was squeezed underneath one of the rocks. Another beer can lay a bit further away. A pencil. Some tissues. Some cigarette butts. A lost scout pin with a celtic knot. Someone had clearly been there before, it didn’t take long to realize that, but it didn’t seem like anything more exciting than a bunch of hikers or something. It was certainly not a demogorgon who had left the cigarette butts behind anyway.

The waterline curved softly before them, making up one of the heart cups. The sea bottom of the lake was mostly clay with sprouting seaweeds growing tall, desperately trying to reach the sunlight at the surface. The clay was the type of consistency that you’d sink down into if you stepped on it. There were some random rocks and grit, but they immediately got swallowed by the clay if you stepped on them.

Jane stepped closer to the water. She knelt down and before Mike could tell her not to, she had dipped her fingers in. She stirred around in a circle, creating subtile ripples on the surface. Her reflection got distorted by the movement, made her face look wobbly and the outline fluid. She pulled her fingers out of the water, dried them on her pants nonchalantly.

”It’s cold,” she noted, as if that wasn’t obvious already.

The lake was never warm in April already. It would take a while to warm it up even if the sun shone consistently every day since it was so deep. It was always cold at the bottom, it was only at the very top layer beneath the surface that it ever reached a pleasant temperature, and even then Mike wondered if swimming in the lake was ever a pleasant experience. 

”Something’s wrong with this lake, I swear…” he muttered, taking a final step off a boulder, reaching the lowest ground level.

The lake seemed much bigger from this angle than from the view above. All around him the higher grounds loomed up, making him feel very small standing in the middle, like he was captured in a huge bowl. The tall trees on top of the heights only made the contrast between the levels seem even bigger. The only open direction was straight ahead, where the lake stretched out. The difference in ground level wasn’t as significant on the other side, closer to the pointed tip of the heart shape, but the trees which grew like a dense wall still contributed to the feeling of being encaged.

”Guys, could this be Holly’s?” Max shouted.

She had walked further away, her voice sounded distant but it echoed vividly across the lake. She picked something up from the ground, some sort of fabric, or so it looked from afar. Nancy hurried over, her gait looking a bit funny as she tried to avoid stepping in anything gross that had washed up on the shore.

Mike was so bothered by the lake itself that he couldn’t even concentrate on searching for clues from the Upside Down and monsters. He let Nancy confirm whether it was Holly’s belonging or not, he was barely even capable to move even if he had wanted to. He stood petrified a safe distance away from the water, just watching it, consumed by fret.

The obscure color seemed to radiate from the waters like a dark aura that lingered in the air above the water level. It sent a chill down Mike’s spine, but at the same time he felt closer to the Upside Down than he had felt since the search had begun. He could sense it.

Jane, Dustin and Lucas all wandered around with their eyes locked on the ground, searching for evidence of any kind. Jane found a fishing hook with some old seaweed hanging off it on the ground. She seemed to find it fascinating. Dustin explained it to her how the hook was used and she listened with great curiosity as though she had never heard of fishing before.

In the meanwhile Lucas had walked away along the shore, as far as he could get before the walkable grounds blended into the water and disappeared. There was a beach of a similar nature, a bit less muddy and bit more gritty, in the other cup of the heart shape and from that other cup all the way down to the pointy end there were solid cliffs to walk on. Of course Hawkins had to get the worst part of the lake on their side, Mike thought mirthlessly.

He slowly stepped closer to the water, feeling as though something was pulling him in. For this reason he really did take it slow, one hesitant step at the time, fearing that if he caved in to the urge to get closer some supernatural force would push him in the back and make him fall right into the lake. He stopped when standing just by the waterline, but without letting it touch his boots.

He glared at it the water and it glared back. He suddenly made eye contact with his own reflection and winced in surprise. When realizing that he startled himself, he felt his cheeks flush. This was getting ridiculous, he thought, so he stepped closer to the water again and looked down at his reflection once more, this time anticipating it to be there — but he did not anticipate seeing himself clad in a fucking paladin armor.

This time he fell on his butt, stapling back from the water, breath caught in his throat.

”Holy shit!” he gasped.

He crawled back as fast as he could, away from what he had seen. The feeling of clayish mud under his palms was repulsive. Once he was a safe distance away from the lake, he got back on his feet and dried his hands on his pants, leaving dirty marks behind. The vision remained clear in his head and though it was insane, he knew that it was real. He had not just imagined his reflection in the armor, it was definitely there, crystal clear and vivid. The colors didn’t even seem washed out by the murky water it was reflected in, if anything they were unnaturally bright.

”Something’s fucking wrong with this lake, you guys!” he yelled, but his voice was vague, as though it was stuck in his throat. ”Something fucking wrong with this lake! What the actual — No way — How does — Guys, this is it! This is it, guys!”

It was ludicrous how they had searched for supernatural signs around the clock for more than two weeks, and now that Mike had actually found it he just wanted it to go away, make everything go back to mundane. With all his willpower he tried to shut the vision out of his head, make it unseen, but even with his eyes squeezed shut the sight of his paladin self was as inescapable.

Jane, Dustin and Lucas made their way over quickly. Mike was unable to answer their questions, not because he didn’t know what he wanted to say but because the words simply wouldn’t come out. He kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

”What’s going on?” Max asked.

She and Nancy came from the other end of the beach. Nancy held a scarf in a tight grip in her hand. It was purple and of a fluffy texture and it was indeed Holly’s. The fringes in both ends of the scarf were dirty and frumpy, but it had clearly not been there for very long since it was undamaged and dry otherwise. Mike managed to register that. It didn’t make him feel more at ease with the lake at all, to know that Holly had been here previously.

”Mike saw something in the lake,” Jane said over her shoulder as the other two approached.

They were gathered in a half circle around Mike, who just like a useless baby stood in the middle and struggled to communicate. In the background in between the others’ frames he could still see the lake and just like before it seemed to be calling his name, drawing him in.

”Don’t you feel it?” he asked. He looked up, pleadingly, at his friends, begging them to understand, begging them to feel what he was feeling because he didn’t want to be alone with it. ”Don’t you feel how the lake wants us to get in?”

Confused, they turned around to look at the lake. They were still for a moment, nobody moving nor saying anything, just trying to sense. Mike rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand to avoid getting clay in his face. He shrugged his head, let it hang low.

”I feel it,” Jane said at last. She turned back to back and now she had an uneasiness in her eyes that she didn’t have just a minute ago. ”It’s calling us. The lake. It wants us to come.”

”Yes. I feel it too,” Lucas mumbled. He kept his eyes locked on the water and just slightly above. Mike wondered if he could see the dark aura radiating into the air as well.

”But what did you see, Mike? You saw something in the water.” Dustin turned to him. He had an earnest expression on his face that let Mike know that he would believe him no matter what he said right now and Mike wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. Right now he just really wanted Dustin to be rational and tell him that it couldn’t be true, but both Mike and Dustin and everybody else who had walked all the way here had faith in the paranormal. They had seen it before. It could be true.

”I saw myself, but it wasn’t actually me. It was my paladin alter. From D&D.”

Dustin and Lucas looked at each other, then back to Mike. They did believe him. And then, before Mike could tell them to wait, they had rushed towards the water to see it for themselves. Just like Mike, they winced back in surprise, but oddly enough Dustin started laughing triumphantly. 

”I’m a fucking dwarf!” he cheered.

He made a striking pose and watched himself in the reflection. Mike couldn’t believe this reaction, it was so inappropriate he just wanted to get up and leave, but it was also incredible but Mike started chuckling to himself too and the immense fear slowly washed away while he did. Dustin flexed his muscles, which in reality weren’t much to flex but in the reflection they must have been glorious.

”Look at those arrows!” Lucas exclaimed. ”This is so cool!”

Mike wanted to get up and go back to see it again, just to make sure that it wasn’t just a flinch. He still found the lake extremely unsettling, and he feared that this was in fact a trick from the lake itself, to charm the visitor with funny visions and then drench them when they least expected it. But this time he was accompanied by his best friends and his sister, who would never let him get swallowed by the lake just like that. He slowly made his way closer. Jane was just behind him, her hand stretched out as if she was already prepared to pull him back if needed. He was indeed such a baby.

Then he looked down at the still water, and just like last time an alternative version of himself looked back. The shining armor used to represent a lot of things when he was younger. It was a sign of bravery, the strength to overcome a plight and noble heroism. Mike had played a few different roles throughout the years, but he always felt like he connected the most with the paladin, just like Will connected with his magician alter, Dustin with the dwarfs and Lucas with the ranger.

”Will the Wise,” Mike said out of the blue. The words came to him sooner than the memory itself. He lifted his gaze from his own reflection, looked out over the lake which appeared immense from that spot. A bird hovered above, far aloft in the skies. It shrieked and the sound echoed in the valley.

Little by little the images returned to his consciousness. The sketchbook was left in the basement but Mike could still recall the exact picture, it was one of the earliest works, fourth page or something like that. Will had made a drawing of the lake. It was definitely this lake, the heart shape made it easily recognizable, there was no other lake that looked quite like this.

In the picture the water had a pretty, light blue shade. There was nothing murky or dark about it, just something captivating, some magical that pulled you in, made you wish that you were a part of the drawing. And on the shore stood Will the Wise with the purple hat on top of his head, his cloak and the wooden marching cane in his right hand. His left hand was raised in the air in a gesture which could only mean that he was casting a spell or else he was preaching, but there was nobody there to listen. Unlike most of Will’s drawings in that sketchbook, this one was very simple. Will the Wise was the only living thing.

To Mike, it just clicked. The missing cog in his brain finally hooked onto the rest of the system, and like a powerful machine his thoughts finally started cooperating. Everything dawned on him with a ruthless impact, like a baseball bat just hit him with full force. In lieu of other ways to express this feeling, Mike started laughing. Loudly. Victoriously. He grabbed his head with both hands, leaving mud in his hair, grasped at the hair strands. Then he fell to his knees by the waterline. He could feel the cold water soak through his jeans, but he wasn’t afraid of the lake anymore.

”What’s going on, Mike?” Nancy asked, worried.

She watched him as he put his hands into the water, splashing around like a child while euphoric happiness rippled through his body. He dug his hands into the sea bottom, brought the dripping clay back up to the surface. It smelled peculiar, a bit rotten almost, organic at its worst. Mike didn’t care.

”The drawings!” he yelled.

He threw the mud back into the water with a splash. He got back up on his feet, only to take off his boots and roll up his pants. He floundered his way further out into the lake. The water rose quickly as he came closer to the underwater steep. The water now reached just above his knees and despite having rolled up his pants, the bottom still got wet as he walked. It was painfully cold. Every hair on his body stood right out and his skin got prickles like a bird’s.

”Mike?!” Jane called from the shore. ”What are you doing?!”

Mike looked down at the water around him. He couldn’t even see his feet because it was so dark and compact. It was unnaturally dense, it didn’t even look like water and in fact — it wasn’t water, it couldn’t be. Something was damn wrong with this lake, and Mike became ever more assured that it was because it wasn’t an actual lake. It was a pool of other-dimensional material, of a sort he couldn’t pinpoint, but it wasn’t normal water, good old H2O, no way.

He turned around. All of his friends were lined up by the waterline with various levels of concerned expressions on their faces. The fact that both Dustin and Lucas had just a minute ago cheered and laughed hysterically was already forgotten. Everyone had turned their attention towards Mike. Jane was already taking her own shoes off and started rolling up her sleeves.

”El, wait!” Max told her, sharply, grabbing his wrist.

Her eyes met Mike’s and Mike knew what Max was thinking in that moment, she feared that he had gone insane, gotten cursed by the lake, was under the influence of something daunting. Jane paused. She held her shoes in her hand and stood still as a statue, watching him.

”Mike, come back here! I’m serious!” Nancy pleaded. ”This lake, it’s got to be —”

”Will drew himself as Will the Wise!” Mike yelled back before she got to finish. He slapped the surface with his hand, making water splash. He laughed out loud again, splashed, and turned back to his friends, dizzy of excitement. ”Don’t you get it?! All the pictures in the sketchbook were from Hawkins! Will the Wise is in Hawkins! Will is here! In the lake! This is the gate! This is the gate, guys, we found it! We found the gate!”

Mike turned his back to them. It took him a moment before his laughing had settled. He was now filled with a striking determination instead, heart pounding as hard as before, but his mind was clear and collected. When his friends were all behind his back, it felt like he was the only person there, although just for a brief moment because he soon heard them making their way through the water, coming closer from behind.

Their movements disrupted the surface, made the strange reflection dissolve into unclear images that made no sense. It wasn’t until they stood side by side, perfectly still, that the reflections became apparent again. Jane, Max and Nancy had water almost all the way up to their underwear. Max had made the mistake to leave her pants on, but though she had rolled them up as far as she could they were still soaked. Dustin shivered in the cold but he didn’t utter any verbal complains.

”So, this is the gate, you think?” Nancy asked Mike and he nodded.

”Yes. I don’t know how we’re supposed to get in though.”

”But where does the gate go? The Upside Down? Because in that case I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for all of us to just jump right in. We’re not prepared yet. We have like… one decent knife, a bottle of water and some snack bars, that’s all. We’re going to die if we enter the Upside Down like this. And we better tell someone that we’re going so they can back us up if something wouldn’t work our way,” Lucas said gravely.

”This is what we’ve literally been looking for since the beginning of April,” Dustin noted. He didn’t sound confident about this, it sounded more like it was his consciousness and logical side that spoke than Dustin himself. He swallowed anxiously. ”We’ve got no time to waste. Will has been in there for way too long already and Holly’s just a kid. When Will was her age he barely survived a week and a couple of days have already passed. We have to go now.”

They stood in silence for a while. The bird shrieked again. Mike kept his eyes locked on his own reflection. It was strangle to see his childhood dream look back at him. When Mike smiled wistfully, the reflection smiled back in the same nostalgic way, as though they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. It was so sentimental Mike was in loss for words. He wished that he could tell his younger self that the paladin was real and that he’d get to meet him one day.

”I don’t think it’s a gate to the Upside Down,” Jane said at last. She sounded brisk and matter-of-factly. She peered into the endless darkness and shook her head no, confidently. ”This is not what the gates to the Upside Down look like. There would be more evil activity around here, more life. The gates are alive, they breathe and pulse and move. And they glow too, like fire almost. You’ve seen it yourself. This doesn’t look like a gate to me.”

”It’s a gate to the third dimension,” Mike replied. He looked up at Jane, who stared back at him.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this statement made her dwindle, made her fretful. He couldn’t blame her. This was as new and unfamiliar to him as it was to her. Finding one alternative dimension was strange enough, but if the Upside Down had taught them one thing it was that there would always be stranger things in the world. There was no end to it, the only limit was their own awareness. But just because they didn’t know about something, it didn’t mean that it didn’t exist. Humans always liked to think that they knew everything, and yet they made contradicting discoveries all the time and every time they acknowledged the latest one as the absolute truth — until another truth replaced the old. There was no way to ever know everything. Mike had finally come to accept that anything was possible and trying to apply ordinary, common sense to everything was just foolish.

”It’s crazy, I know,” Mike assured, nodding to himself. ”But if not a third dimension, then what is all of this?”

He gestured with his hand around them. Nancy was still clutching Holly’s scarf. She looked at it as if she had to check that it was real. She knew that it was. They all knew. Holly had been here and there was something paranormal about the lake. She kept the scarf pressed against her chest, keeping it out of the water. It was just a fabric but it was definitely the evidence they had come for and now they had found it.

”Alright. Let’s assume there’s a third dimension,” Lucas started, both hands gesturing concisely in front of him. He took his time before continuing, ”To just enter a third dimension which we have exactly zero experience of, we have literally no idea what’s waiting for us on the other side, is just stupid. It’s a suicide mission and if we die, then how are we supposed to help Will and Holly?”

”We have to prepare ourselves better,” Max agreed. ”We should go back, get everything we may need, meet up with Steve and then come back again later.”

To this, everyone agreed and they made their way back to the shore. With soaked clothes but with high spirits they walked the long way back through the woods.

***

”Steve’s here!” Jane announced from the kitchen.

Mike was delighted to have something else to do. He switched the TV off and hurried over to the window to see. It was approximately three o’clock. Steve had arrived just on time.

At that point they had already washed the mud off and changed into dry, clean clothes again and rested their tired legs. Lucas had a nasty blister on his heel which suddenly explained why he had complained so much. Mike had helped him sanitize it with some alcohol solution, put a plaster on and wrapped a thin layer of bandage around it just to keep everything in place.

Mike had been slouching in the living room where he had loitered on the couch in front of the TV, watching something that he didn’t really pay attention to. A documentary or a news report of some sort. A suited man walked around in a children’s hospital with a microphone, looking comically out of place with his flashy gear amongst the nurses and children in gowns.

Mike hadn’t paid much attention to the world around him at all lately. Remembering that the rest of the world had proceeded, unbothered by anything that had anything to do with Will Byers, made him feel like he was already in a different dimension, separated from the rest of humanity.

He got alarmingly surprised when hearing about the South African election, the first interracial one, which he would normally had thought of as a major event and kept himself updated about but had wholly forgotten about under the circumstances. It was Lucas who told him just a day prior. Mike was ashamed by his lack of interest, but all he could think about right now was his own situation. Perhaps it was selfish, but so was the rest of the human population, it seemed. The police had done exactly nothing to help them search for Will, who to them personally was likely just another case amongst the thousands. Caring about everyone and everything would drive one insane in no time, it seemed, so maybe the selectiveness of a man’s mind was really just a survival instinct when it all came down to it.

And now, Steve’s arrival was all that mattered. Like a fresh breath of air, Steve’s presence seemed to make everything a little bit easier. Mike smiled as he watched Steve park his car along the hedge which shielded the garden from the street. Nancy’s car and his own already filled the parking space. Mike often felt lonely being so separated from the rest of humanity, but seeing how crammed the parking was already and thinking about how many amazing people he was surrounded by at the moment made him reconsider the whole thing. He wasn’t lonely at all.

Steve stepped out of the car and raised a hand in a greeting in Mike’s direction. Mike raised his hand back. Mike instantly noticed that Steve’s hair wasn’t as ridiculous as it used to be, but it still had lots of volumes and he still took care of it like a baby. Mike watched him go around the car to get his stuff from the trunk with fascination. The excessive amount of styling products had made his hair rock solid, it didn’t move the slightest even when the wind blew.

Mike wondered if Steve still lived his life with the belief that he was the hottest guy in the world or if he was aware that his hair was a magnificent joke but embraced it with pride. Steve never took himself too seriously these days, it seemed, which was inspiring to see. Mike wished he had some of that self-distance. How much easier wouldn’t life be if you could just laugh at your own tragedy?

”Hello!” Steve cheered when stepping into the house. He didn’t knock first, didn’t need to. He dropped a heavy bag on the floor and gave Dustin, who was the quickest on his feet to welcome him, a brotherly hug, dunking him repeatedly on the back. ”How are you doing? Everything alright with the smartasses?”

”Everything’s great, just great. How about you? Still no divorce?” Dustin teased. He punched Steve on the arm and he flicked him off in return. Steve threw his jacket to the side, made himself at home without any fuss, before greeting everyone else.

Lucas, Jane and Max were cooking something in the kitchen. Nancy had gone to the grocery store just a while ago and bulked up with convenient snacks and ingredients for easy, fast cooking for lots of people. The fridge was fully stocked and so were the kitchen cabinets.

She had also dropped by at Auntie’s place to tell Karen that everything was okay. Mike guessed that she didn’t mention that Holly was trapped in a different dimension in the creepy Lover’s Lake in the middle of the woods. In a way he felt bad about leaving her out of the circle, but she wasn’t like mrs Byers, she simply wasn’t. It had nothing to do with not caring or lacking the will to help, but she she’d probably just get in the way since she didn’t know how she could help. It was better to let her stay with Auntie and Nana.

”Oh, smells nice in here!” Steve commented when entering the kitchen, sniffing hungrily. He leaned against the kitchen island in the middle, which Mike sat on top of already as it was his special spot, dangling with his legs.

”We need some food, we’re starving!” Lucas said over his shoulder.

He stirred a large pot with a wooden spoon. It was some kind of Italian bolognese, lots of tomato puree. Spaghetti boiled in a separate pot next to it. Hot steam wafted into the air, created condense on the window behind the stove. Max rummaged the drawers on the hunt for something to serve the food on. She had already put cuticles on the table in the dining room next door.

”So, what have you been up to lately?” Steve asked. He helped himself some chips from an old bag which laid neglected on the island amongst a bowl with fruit and nuts, shoved them in his mouth while eyeing everyone and no-one in particular.

”Well, Will vanished again at —”

”No, no, no, not about Will!” Steve waved a hand in the air, frowned. ”I mean, before all of that. No offense to Will, I just want to know what you’ve been doing since I saw you last. Man, it’s been ages since I saw you all at once! When was the last time? Was it at the wedding?”

”I think so, yeah,” Mike recalled.

They proceeded to tell everyone what they had been up to since then. The wedding was in August two years ago. Mike remembered that he was just started college at the time. Back then he didn’t have much to say besides ’it seems cool’, based off his first impression. He had only briefly socialized with the other students. Now he could tell a lot more, but after Lucas admitted that he had slept with his manager’s daughter, the conversation started spiraling in a hilarious, unfiltered way and at the same rate Mike found himself getting ever more quiet, just listening instead of telling any stories of his own.

Sometimes he asked himself what good would come of coming out as bisexual, weighed the pros and against the cons and pondered whether it was worth it or not. This was exactly why he wished that he could just be honest, for the sake of participation and unity. He couldn’t contribute with anything to this conversation because he feared that he’d say something wrong, accidentally slip and suddenly it’d be out and irreversible.

Not that he didn’t enjoy listening, and he could comment on his friends’ stories, but he still felt left out. He couldn’t feel as free as he wanted, he was always on edge, contriving ’is this okay to say?’, ’does this sound suspicious?’ and other questions of the same nature, which were really just all the same one but phrased differently. He didn’t want to be so cautious with his best friends as it prohibited him from being there in the moment. Just how many conversations hadn’t he spent dissociating, just hoping for it to pass, because of these fears?

He thought about what Lewis had told him, about how he and Will drove around on the west coast and how they seemed so open with one another and seemed to see each other for who they really were (well, minus the minor detail that Will was a wizard or whatever, but whatever, it that was beside the point…). For a second Mike was so tempted to say it that he was actually ready to just blurt it out of the blue, but he forced it down until the urge dissolved. Now was not the time. Some other time. Maybe. He could manage a bit more.

”Guys, I think this is ready,” Jane said, peeping into the pot.

They served themselves and sat down in the dining room. Nancy was still asleep upstairs so they put a plate aside for her to eat when she woke up. Mike had already napped for the second time that day. Once they got home from the wandering, he slumped down on the couch in the living room, just wanting to sit for a bit, and then he woke up to the sound of noise in the kitchen an hour later.

”I think about you guys sometimes when I’m hanging around these other kids, you know,” Steve shoved a fork full of spaghetti into his mouth. ”I honestly don’t think I would ever have ended up with this job if it wasn’t for my babysitting experience as a teen. You were so fucking annoying sometimes, not gonna lie, but what can I say? I was brilliant at what I did, it was my fate to work with youngsters.”

”So, are you and your wife planning on having some of your own?” Jane nudged, a cheeky spark in her eye.

Steve choked on his spaghetti. He frantically reached for his glass of water to wash it down with. Max dunked him in the back, laughing.

”Shh, we don’t talk about that!” he hissed, finger to his lips. Then he leaned his elbow on the table, his fork swaying around in his hand, continuing in a rather grave tone, ”I seriously can’t imagine myself as a father. It’s scary. I like that I get to teach the kids stuff for a couple of hours a day, I get to see them grow and all that good stuff, but I love how I send them back home when the day’s over. I love that I can just go back to my house and only have to take care of myself and my girl, you know? I can’t imagine having the full responsibility of a human person. I’d mess the kid up somehow, I know it already.”

”But Isabella, does she want kids?” Dustin asked.

Steve drank some more water, put the glass down on the table. He truly looked troubled by this question. Mike felt a bit bad for him. He knew that Steve liked to think of himself as unaffected, easy-going, the chill kind of guy, but he was a lot more sensitive than he let people see. It was only sometimes it beamed through. Now was one of those rare instances. Mike pretended to look out the window behind Dustin instead of staring right at Steve, just to make him less uncomfortable.

”I think so, yes,” Steve said. ”We’ve been discussing it a lot lately. I mean, it’s crazy, I can’t even believe it, but I’m twenty-eight years old now and she’s twenty-nine, so we’re definitely at the age when people would consider having kids. For being a Hawkins native I’m already late! For real, people here get married and have kids so early!”

”It’s because there’s nothing else to do in Hawkins!” Mike frowned.

”I suppose you’re right, but I don’t know…” Steve shrugged. ”It’s weird because I don’t think I’ll ever feel ’ready’ to have kids. I mean, do you ever reach that point? Do you just wake up one day and suddenly you’re ready to produce a new human, bring the kid into the world and raise it to be a good person? Only people with major hubris would ever be that confident! It’s an immense task! Not to even mention commitment! It’s not like you can just change your mind when the kid’s five years old and make it undone!”

Something interesting that had unfurled itself just recently was how the gap between the older ones in the group and the younger seemed to have closed significantly. When Mike was in middle school, and also high school, Steve and Robin seemed so much older it was a bit difficult to see them as actual friends, they always felt as older siblings or caretakers of some weird sort and in return they seemed to perceive the younger counterparts as their responsibilities, their kiddos.

But on the last occasion when they all gathered together at Steve’s wedding, Mike felt like the old dynamic had been replaced. The older guests, some which Mike knew since previously, some which he had never met before, talked to him like an equal. They truly listened to his opinion, hummed and seemed to find it interesting. He wasn’t just a kid who happened to be the son of one of Steve’s friends, but he was invited as Steve’s personal friend, and Dustin was asked to be a best man without an inkling of irony or comical undercurrents. Steve truly wanted him to be there with him on his big day.

And now they were discussing topics which were a) alarmingly grownup and b) as equals. When anyone of them offered Steve advice or suggested a different perspective, he truly listened, apparently trusting their insights. And in return, the younger listened to him not just as a mentor-figure, but as friend.

Mike felt extremely uneasy by the whole discussion itself, but it was interesting as well. He felt like a trainee-adult, someone who tried his best but was still struggling his way forward. He liked to think that it’d pass, because so his parents told him when he vocalized his concerns, but he feared that the price for accepting adulthood was to become just like them — pedestrian, uninspired and so painfully bound to their routines that they had probably not thought a single thought in the past ten years that they had never crossed their minds at some point already.

Mike enjoyed certain parts of adulthood, he really did, but other parts could keep him up at night, sweaty and anxious. When Mike thought about his own age, twenty-three, and realized that he wasn’t too much younger than Steve, he felt his throat clam up and his skin felt uncomfortably tight just like that.

Would his parents soon start nudging him into getting married? Getting a ’real job’? Having children? He had noticed already how a single year could pass by so ruthlessly apace. It wouldn’t take long before he was expected to become something — someone — in this world, something more than who he already was. A husband, an employee, a CEO, a father, just something. 

Anything at all was better than being a queer paladin running around in a dreamland, but right now that was the most alluring future he could envision for himself, and also the most unrealistic one out of the ones he could choose from. Mike frantically drank some water to cool himself down, pleaded in his head that this conversation would come to an end.

”If you have kids some day, we can take turns babysitting them. It’s our payback to you!” Max winked. Steve chuckled at this. He ran his hand through his stiff-sprayed hair, making it split up into smaller parts. One funny cowlick fell over his forehead.

”I appreciate it, thank you,” he said. He leaned back on the chair, shrugged his head so the hair fell out of its shape. ”But I never really babysat you guys, did I? I mean, you bossed me around almost as much as I bossed around you. I was as scared like everyone else and I didn’t have any better ideas just because I was a bit older. Neither did Jonathan, Robin or Nancy, if you ask me anyway. Honestly, I think what made us such a good team was the mix of ideas.” He gestured with his hands by rolling them around each other.

”Perhaps you’re right,” Dustin said, smiling.

”I’m pretty sure I am in this case actually,” Steve shrugged. ”So, with this being said, you really don’t owe me anything. I owe you just as much, anyway. We’re even, alright? A team! Whoo!”

They raised their glasses and although they were just filled with water and apple juice, the salut felt very venerable. It immediately brought Mike’s thoughts to a roundtable of knights, sharing one last meal before heading into battle. It wasn’t even too far off from reality. Mike let himself enjoy the moment, let his imagination remake the dining room into a grand castle salon. Chandelier dangling from the ceiling, candles on the table, expensive wine served in large goblets. For a moment he feared that he was going crazy, how childish he was, but on the other hand that feeling was more liberating than anything.

He couldn’t remember when he last let his mind create whatever it wanted. He certainly didn’t have the ability to do it when they tried to play D&D just before driving to Will’s university. The sensation of not restraining his thought made him feel tingly with excitement.

He stuffed some spaghetti into his mouth and imagined it tasting like a medieval delicacy, whatever that meant by historical accuracy he wasn’t too sure, but he could imagine it still, and nobody else around the table knew he was daydreaming anyway. He wondered if they did the same thing. Did they see the brilliant crystals in the chandelier that didn’t exist? Did they see something else? Did they see the old ceiling lamp that had always hung there, the one with glitching bulbs and stained shields?

Mike started giggling, so amused by his own fantasy that he couldn’t stay quiet anymore. Fuck growing up, he thought, smiling to himself. And somewhere, not too far away but still closed off in a different world, Will Byers surely agreed.


	10. Chapter 10

Readier than they had ever been, they left the Wheeler’s. They had food and water packed in backpacks which laid in the trunk. They also had some knives, torches, extra batteries, a first aid kit, a rope Mike found in the garage, matches, Ted Wheeler’s hunting rifle, four cellphones of various capacity (one which was so large that it resembled a brick and only functioned about every fourth time you tried to call someone, but at least it could receive calls just fine). Half of the backpacks were just filled with the ridiculous amount of plastic they had used to waterproof everything that oughted to be.

Jane had also snapped some polaroid pictures of the calendar’s most important pages, which turned out to be a more efficient way to bring it along. If she hadn’t run out of film she could have snapped pictures of Will’s artwork as well. Instead Lucas had tried to copy the pictures in Will’s sketchbook using the printer in his house and came back with an entire paper bundle made up by his attempts, some which were actually okay and some which were so blurry and inaccurately colored they didn’t even resemble Will’s works the slightest.

Mike refused to bring Will’s originals under water, fearing that they’d get ruined despite being wrapped in plastic and put in a waterproof bag. He had used that waterproof bag once before at a field trip in high school and its ability to actually stay sealed was questionable. It felt safer to bring the copies, not to mention more convenient. Mike didn’t hesitate folding the copies into tiny squared to make them fit into the backpack’s smaller department, wrapped in plastic and with generous amount of tape. Will’s sketchbook was safely placed in Mike’s bookshelf amid the other books. There was nothing conspicuous about it, in case someone would come down into the basement for some reason.

This time they drove closer as close as they could get to the lake so they’d only have to walk the last bit through the woods. It was approaching supper time, the sun stood low on the sky but it was not yet sunset when they left.

Mike drove his car with Max and Jane in the backseat. Steve drove his with Dustin, Nancy and Lucas just behind him, letting him show the way although he wasn’t sure which route would be the fastest. He felt a bit excited though to have found a spot in Hawkins which he didn’t know too well already.

”We don’t have any powers this time,” Jane said.

She was watching Hawkins pass by on the other side of the window glass with remorseful eyes. Mike hoped she wasn’t saying goodbye. He felt great, amazing even, to the point where it was almost offensive considering the circumstances. He just felt it in his guts, the infamous intuition which had already caused them so much trouble and which seemed to be more prominent now than it had ever been before, that this was the right way. He truly had faith in that they’d find both Will and Holly before sunrise. Perhaps the intuition was just a subconscious death wish, but it felt like a positive thing at the moment. He drummed on the steering wheel cheerfully.

”It’s okay, we’ll manage.”

”Do you think Will has powers?” Jane asked, as if she hadn’t heard Mike at all.

The question was so blunt it was piercing. Mike tightened the grip of the steering wheel, unsure of what to answer. The question made perfect sense to ask, so much that it was strange that nobody had brought it up in the past despite everything.

”Who knows?” he answered her at last. It was probably the best reply one could give.

They didn’t speak again after that. Mike turned on the radio, kept his eyes ahead of him, occupied his brain with street names and intersections all the way to the final stop, just about forty minutes away from the lake. They were officially in the neighboring town, but just at the border to Hawkins. The woodlands weren’t as deep and bewildered from this spot. They’d be able to walk pretty much straight forward through moderately impractical terrains and reach the lake before sunset.

When Mike parked the car and switched the engine off he could feel the tension in the air. This was the beginning of a new chapter. Rather than finding it daunting, he was excited. He remembered the vision he had as they ate, in which they were all noble knights.

He gazed into the forest. It looked endless from this spot. And in his mind he told himself that this was his plight and he wasn’t going to get in that car again unless Will and Holly came with him. And so they started started walking towards the lake.

***

The sun was just about to disappear when they reached the Lover’s Lake. The sky was on fire, so vibrant it looked like a painting. The colors reflected on the surface of the lake, made it appear as though the sky had consumed the world all the way from the high skies to the low grounds. Hawkins had never had skies like this before. Somehow it felt like the town itself had realized that there was magic simmering in the ground, in the air, just all around.

Mike had to dwell for a moment at the top of the hill just to admire the view before climbing down. He never thought he’d think the Lover’s lake was actually pretty. It probably had more to do with his mindset than the lake itself. Will was in that lake, that was the reason why he suddenly appreciated it so much. It still radiated that eerie aura and the water was surreally dark, just like before, but Mike wasn’t afraid of the water anymore. If anything, he was eager to dive into it.

”Okay, I get what you meant by ’something weird about the lake’. Man, is that even water?” Steve scowled. He squinted his eyes as he looked out over the lake, frowned. 

He dropped the backpack on a dry spot on the ground and started idling around on the shore, tracing the semi-circle in the same fashion as the rest had done earlier that day. He knelt down a couple of times to look at something on the ground but never picked anything up. As though repulsed by just the thought of touching the seaweed and debris, he kept his hands unnecessarily high, near his chest.

”We’re not entirely sure what it is about it, but something’s going on here. Some sort of paranormal activity for sure. We don’t think it’s the Upside Down. It has to be something else,” Dustin informed him when Steve came back from the left side of the cup.

Dustin was already taking his shoes off, relying on a boulder for balance. Lucas was about to do the same thing, though with more difficulty since his foot was wrapped in bandage and shouldn’t get it ruined by the damp clay. He skipped around with his shoes half-on/half-off and started unzipping his jacket when Max interfered:

”Wait, wait, wait! We don’t even know how we’re supposed to get to the gate. Maybe we don’t even need to get in the water?”

”Oh…” Lucas said, dumbly, pausing mid-movement. ”Good point, Max!”

”But it’s obviously the water that is strange. It’s not the ground, the rocks or the trees up there, is it? It’s the water!” Dustin pointed towards the lake. ”I think it makes sense to assume that the gate is in the lake, unless the gate is actually the lake itself.”

”Yeah, but maybe there’s another way,” Nancy reasoned impassively.

She watched Jane from behind, not even looking in Dustin’s direction, hand shielding her eyes from the sun. Jane stood just by the waterline, her frame still, looking like a mere shadow in the dusk light. Jane hadn’t moved for several minutes, her face was locked straight ahead towards the lake. Nobody dared to interrupt her thought, though everyone was dying to know what she was thinking.

”So, do you have any other suggestions on how to find the gate?” Dustin asked, not disdainfully but calmly. He had put his shoes back on and stood beside Nancy and Max, holding his own hand by the wrist. He leaned in closer. ”Is she okay…?” he whispered, but received no reply but concerned silence.

In the meanwhile Mike was unpacking the bags, making sure that they knew exactly where all the items were and that the tools were evenly distributed so that nobody would ever find themselves without the tool they needed. They only had one rope but cutting it into smaller pieces was a stupid idea. He put it in the largest backpack and made a mental note to remember that whoever carried that one also carried their only rope.

”I think we’re ready to go here!” he announced when zipping the last bag shut. He didn’t expect to see everyone so tense when he turned around. Jane was the center of attention, everybody else was just watching her. ”Everything alright?” he asked.

”Mike, go talk to her,” Max nudged him, cocking her head in Jane’s direction.

Mike strolled closer to the water and stopped when he stood just next to her. Her face was lit up in a glowing luminously as the sun was setting at the other side of the lake. Mike didn’t see it at first, but then a ray of light reflected in a drop trickling down her cheek and he realized that she was crying. Her face didn’t look sad otherwise. It was just still, a bit hollow maybe. Her chest did rise and fall rhythmically, but she scarcely looked like a living human person. She reminded Mike a lot of how she was when they first met. It made him wistful to see.

”It sure is a full circle closure,” Mike stated.

He glanced at her face to see if it had changed as he spoke to her. It hadn’t. Her eyes were still looking straight ahead, barely blinking despite having the sun burning right in front of her. He put his hands in his pockets, dwelling. He could feel the rest’s eyes watching their backs from behind.

”It feels like going home, Mike,” she said at last. Only her lips moved.

”You are home,” he assured her, smiling.

”How do you know where your home is? You know I don’t fit in here. I keep trying my best but sometimes it feels like a theatre and I have to play this character called Jane. But I am not Jane, am I? And now I’m not Eleven either. It feels like going home, but I’m not welcome anymore.”

Now she turned her face towards him. Her eyes looked bewildered, untamed. Something was breaking inside of her, but whether that was the bars that had encaged her for way too long or her own heart, Mike couldn’t tell. He couldn’t tell either if she was begging him to stay close or if this was her way of pushing him and everybody else away. Her words were harsh and woeful, and yet Mike felt some sort of fresh breeze in the pain. He couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

”I suppose you get to decide that for yourself,” Mike spoke serenely, hoping that he wouldn’t make her feel worse or pressure in any direction. It was always difficult to help Jane since you never really knew what she was thinking.

”Right now I feel like I’m neither,” she said, looking down at her feet. She twisted her shoe in the clay, leaving a little mark that resembled a snow angel, not meeting Mike’s eyes. ”I wish I had my powers, Mike. I feel lost without them. I mean, who am I even without them?”

”Jane?”

”Yes, but Jane isn’t me, not my true me. I refuse to think that she is. She is lesser than everybody else. She’s not smart, she doesn’t understand the things everybody else seem to understand, she’s not funny, cool, talented or anything else. She’s so… mediocre.” 

ore tears were falling from her lower lash line now. They ran over her cheekbones, down her cheeks, rounded her chin and either followed her neck from there or fell from the top. She didn’t wipe them away. She just wrapped her arms around herself and clenched her teeth together.

”She’s not mediocre. She’s really cool. I like Jane a lot,” Mike said, nodding.

He wanted to think that his words of encouragement meant something to her, but he doubted it. He knew from personal experience that nobody else could talk confidence into your brain. It had to come from within and it couldn’t be done in a minute. It took time. An entirely lifetime for most people. And she was so far from mediocre, truly, anyone could see that, but in comparison to how extraordinary she used to be when she was Eleven, it wasn’t strange that she felt like Jane wasn’t enough.

”I miss being Eleven, Mike.” Jane’s face finally contracted, breaking the statue like blandness. She shook her head slowly, squeezed her eyes shut tightly. ”And now I can’t be Eleven anymore. How can I be Eleven without my powers? I can’t! It’s unfair. First they took away my chances of ever being a normal girl, then I lost my powers so I won’t ever be a special girl. This is not who I want to be! I don’t want to spend my whole life trying to catch up, always being one step behind everybody else! It’s so tiring! It’s so damn tiring! Nobody understands how tiring it is everyday!”

”You’re stuck in between,” Mike noted.

He weight back and fourth on his heels, a bit anxiously so, but he tried to remain casual. He could hear their friends talking behind him. It sounded like they were discussing something else, which was delighting to hear. It felt less awkward to chat when they didn’t have an audience.

”Yes, but it sucks being stuck in between. I’m not Jane enough to be Jane and I’m not Eleven enough to be Eleven. I don’t fully belong in this world and I don’t fully belong anywhere else either.” Jane wiped her face then dried the hands on her cardigan. Now she sounded more disgruntled and frustrated than hurt. She sighed. ”You know, it all comes down to one thing.”

”Yeah?”

”I don’t like to feel like I’m in my own bubble and everybody else gets to be in the same bubble. I want to feel close to other people. I just want to — ” she paused, floundered for words, tears streaming again, ” — I just want to be enough of something!”

Mike instilled this for a moment. Oh, he knew a bunch of things he’d like to say about that, but he stifled it back. Besides, his experiences were not as bad as hers, if put on a scale ranging from minor inconvenience to moderately troublesome to disastrous. He was just being whiny. There were people who had it worse than himself.

The sun had now set behind the trees on the other side. The sky was still flourishing, though darker shades had sneaked their way into the golden palette. Lucas and Max had started throwing rocks into the lake. Water splashed as they hit the surface. It completely ruined the dreamy aura, but perhaps it was needed — it was time to move on, try to find the gate. Mike was just about to head back to get ready, but first he dwelled for another second. He needed to say something before ending the conversation. He had only really listened passively so far, let Jane do the talking. She was still overtly sad.

”Just so you know, most people feel the exact same way. It’s okay. We’re in this boat together. And I honestly don’t think there is a way for someone to fully understand another person,” he began. He itched his cheek, waited for her response but it didn’t come so he continued, carefully as if he was walking on thin ice, unsure of this was the thing she needed to hear.

She gave him her full attention. She, unlike how Mike himself often reacted when he felt down, actually seemed to listen to his comforting words. She didn’t push them away, didn’t brush them off. It was a bit unsettling, even. Mike wasn’t sure if he was making any sense anyway.

”We can’t read each other’s minds, can we?” he continued, ”Or, I don’t know, maybe you could before, when you had your powers, but the rest of us can’t. And just because you don’t save the day all by yourself every time, it doesn’t mean that you’re useless or not enough. It’s our common responsibility, isn’t it? You saved us way too much last time. This time we’ll have to help each other. I suppose that’s how it meant to be. That’s sort of what it means to be in the same bubble as other people, doesn’t it? We’re equals. We’re a team, like Steve said. We help each other — even though we don’t not always understand each other. Because even if we don’t understand, we still care no matter what, right?”

Mike felt like a fool for giving her advice when he clearly had no idea what he was doing with his own life, but she smiled gratefully and that was enough.

They headed further up on the shore and talked to Nancy and Dustin. Nancy gave Jane a hug, rubbed her back almost motherly. Dustin told them that Lucas and Max were throwing rocks to see if the water reacted to activity. So far there were no results, but when Mike watched the rocks hit the water he anticipated something to happen every time. He was still assured that they were going to find the gate tonight. All they needed was a final sign to go.

***

When it was apparent that the rocks didn’t activate the gate, Mike and Dustin undressed and floundered out in the water in their boxers. It was freezing. Without his shirt on it was even worse than when he was done the same thing earlier.

The evening air was chilly once the sun had vanished entirely. Every muscle in his body was tense from the moment he took the first steps into the water. As he made his way further out he was repeatedly startled by tendrils of seaweed brushing against his skin.

He stopped when the water hit him mid thigh and regretted immediately that he took his shirt off, seriously contemplating whether it was worth going back to shore to get it, but decided not stay put, only stepping around in a tiny ratio since he’d start sinking deeper into the clay if he stood still for too long. The texture felt like porridge between his toes, very unpleasant.

”Do you see the dwarf and the paladin?” Lucas asked from the shore when they had waited for a while. He didn’t even need to raise his voice because the sound traveled uninterrupted in the valley. It even echoed in the distance at the opposite side of the lake. If anybody was there they’d surely hear them, despite being so far away.

”Yeah, it looks like before!” Dustin replied over his shoulder before turning back to the reflection. 

Mike stood just beside him, their shoulders almost brushing against each other. Mike could see Dustin’s dwarf alter as clearly as he could see his own paladin self. It was so captivating he could easily had stayed there just staring at his own reflection all night.

The sky was muted Prussian blue but they knew that it’d get even darker eventually. The moon was vaguely perceivable behind veils of clouds. Bats and nightbirds hovered around them. Sometimes they made high pitched nosies but they were otherwise just silent shadows circulating above that flashed by at an incredible speed before disappearing again just as fast. Some early crickets chirped, a toad or two croaked. The lake seemed more alive at this hour than during the afternoon and every sound came across as unnaturally loud.

On the shore the others had made a small fire in the former fireplace. The flames made their shadows look vivid and enlarged and the reds and yellows reflected in the lake near the shore. Nancy kept feeding the fire with sticks they had gathered in a pile. They had some packages of sausages in the backpacks, but they were going to save them for as long as possible and nobody was starving yet, but Max and Jane had made a structure above the fire so they could heat up some water and made some coffee at least. Steve took a nap further up the slope where the ground was dry and easy to brush off. He had made a pillow out of Mike’s sweater. It was almost eight o’clock. Nothing much had happened since arriving.

”Do you think we’re doing something wrong?” Mike asked Dustin. His feet and legs were so numb at this point that it wasn’t as awful to stay in the water, but he’d much rather sit by the bonfire nonetheless.

”I don’t know, but I suppose if just standing here was enough to make the gate reveal itself, it would already had done so,” he replied. He stirred in the water with his index finger, ruining the reflections. ”I try to think ’what would Will do?’, because I’m pretty sure that would help us figure it out, assuming that Will has actually opened the gate and entered the dimension at several occasions in the past. The problem is that I literally have no idea what Will would do. Is that a bad thing?”

”We’re all equally clueless. I keep wondering how Will found the dimension in the first place. I mean, did he actively look for it? Or did a gate just randomly pop up out of nowhere when he happened to walk by? How did this start?”

”Damn good question. He’s sure got some explaining to do when we find him,” Dustin said, disgruntled. He turned his face upwards towards the trees on top of the slope, then back down again. Everything looked just the same as it had done all evening. He sighed deeply. ”I don’t understand how he could keep all of this a secret from us. This has obviously been going on for a while. You said that that Lewis guy told you Will had been getting those bruises since his freshman year, correct?”

”That’s what he told me anyway.”

”Do you think he actually got them from those guys?”

”No.” Mike shook his head no, confidently. ”Absolutely not.”

”Well, in that case he’s been regularly visiting a different dimension for like two-three years or something without telling any of us.”

Jane and Lucas started laughing at something. Mike curiously looked behind him. He was happy to see that she was okay again, at least for now. Jane stood by the fire clad in an oversized fleece jacket which had belonged to Mike’s grandfather, she had found it in the garage a long time ago and decided to keep. It looked more like a blanket with sleeves on her and she was perfectly content with it. Her fingertips poked out of the sleeve just barely.

”It’s not funny!” Max whined, though she was laughing. Mike wished he had heard what they were laughing at. ”Jane?! Why are you on his side all of a sudden?!”

Max took one of the portable bowls out of a backpack and went down the waterline. She scooped some water and headed back up with fierce determination. Lucas and Jane both rushed backwards, still laughing, holding their hands in front of them as useless shields. Then she threw it towards them and they shrieked despite the water only leaving tiny, damp patches on their clothes. Some sprinkles of water also landed in the fire and when they did, the fire started spitting violently and turned into a fierce sapphire blue. Max threw herself to the side, almost falling over.

”What the fuck — ?!” Lucas stumbled backwards.

The flames threw a venomous light like a blue veil over his face, made his eyes flash. Then it was over, just as fast as it had begun. The fire returned to its original state, warm, orangey, crackling softly.

Mike’s heart almost skipped a beat and now he stood petrified with Dustin equally astonished next to him. Without a word of communication they hurried their way back to shore, struggling as they sank into the clay at the bottom and their joints were deep frozen and stiff.

”Is everyone okay?!” Max frantically looked from Lucas to Jane to Nancy and back again. ”Oh my god, guys, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! Sorry!”

She still held the bowl in her hand, now fretfully, as if she wanted to get it away from her but didn’t know where to put it. Drops still trickled from it but nothing happened when they hit the ground. Steve woke up from his nap further up the slope.

”What’s going on?” he fumbled, rubbing his eyes.

”Did you all see that?! Did you see it?!” Lucas pointed towards the fire. ”Max, do it again!”

”No! What if someone get’s hurt?!” she resisted.

”Do it again!” Mike commanded, coming up on shore. Water dropped from his legs and the mud clung onto his feet as he walked further up and he had some seaweed stuck to his thigh. Steve threw him his sweater, which he hurried to put on while still staring at the fire, bewildered and fascinated by what he had just seen. ”Do it again, Max!”

She hesitated for a second but caved in. She scooped up some more water and returned to the rest, who were gathered in a disconnected circle around the fire. She leaned back away from the center and threw some water into the flames. The moment the water was midair, she stepped away and shielded herself with her hands. Mike stood a safe distance away, not daring to breath. 

The bonfire crackled vigorously, simmered, before it suddenly exploded. Blue flashes dashed out from the construction. It only lasted for a second or two, then it settled back just like the first time. When it seemed stable again they cautiously creeped closer to see better. Mike peered into the pile of burning sticks at the bottom and found that it was unaffected by the explosion.

”Something definitely wrong with the lake, alright!” Mike confirmed, eyes wide open. He was shivering and cold. The heat radiating from the fire was alluring, but he was still on edge, expecting something sudden any second.

”And exactly what does this mean?!” Dustin had both hands on his head like he was going insane.

A chaotic stream of chatter broke out of the terrified silence. Mike was rambling but he didn’t even know what he was saying. The fire burned peacefully in the center, almost mockingly. Max received an inappropriate amount of questions since she was the one who threw the water, but she didn’t understand more than anybody else.

Mike now feared that he was just spent twenty minutes in toxic waters and was going to lose both his legs as a consequence of this. He could already envision himself at the hospital, getting ready for a double amputation. The sense of panic made them irrational but at least something had happened that stood out from the rest of the evening, a clue of some sort. Their discussions hadn’t been this intense and creative since Dustin announced that Charlie Evenbrook didn’t exist at the hotel.

”Everything looks blue in the Upside Down,” Jane said quietly.

This made the rest shut up. Jane tucked a hair strand behind her ear, put her hands in the fleece jacket’s pockets, nodded. ’You heard me’. Mike looked back over his shoulder at the lake. The murky aura hovering above the surface, the surreal darkness and the reflections. Of course, something was wrong with it, but he didn’t get the same crippling feeling as when he walked the tunnels last time.

”I don’t think it is the Upside Down,” he said, voice strained as his jaws were clenched. ”I could be wrong of course, but I just don’t think that’s it.”

He hugged himself, pushed the knitted fabric as close to his skin as possible, trying to gain some warmth back. His lips were probably purple at this point and his ankles were so frozen that every time he put any weight on them, they ached agonizingly. But despite being cold, he knew that this was not the same type of cold as in the Upside Down. This was just his body temperature which had dropped because of the water. In the tunnels the coldness made your blood feel icy, with every heartbeat you could feel it force its way through the veins and it made your thoughts and feelings come to your in frozen blocks which had to be cracked open by force to access. The cold came from fear, not temperature. It was definitely not the same.

”What do you reckon then?” Steve asked him.

”I don’t know.”

”Could it be that the Upside Down is trying to stop us from getting into the third dimension?” Lucas suggested, seemingly unsure of his own idea. He looked at each one of his friends, searching for assurance or support. Mike nodded tentatively. It was something along those lines he had thought as well but he didn’t know how to phrase it.

”We should dive in,” Mike said. He regretted his own words the moment they were out, but he didn’t take them back. ”We have to see what’s on the bottom of the lake.”

”We won’t be able to see a thing though,” Max reasoned, looking at the lake anxiously. ”It’s pitch black and it’s probably not even real water. What if we die in there?”

”What if Will and Holly die in there while we’re talking up here?” Jane’s voice was clear while everything else was nebulous.

Her gaze made anyone it landed on clam up, look away abashedly. As usual her words meant more than anybody else’s. Mike couldn’t fathom that she thought of herself as lesser when she was obviously not. Her impassive facial expression and voice demanded everyone’s attention even without trying. She was, with or without her powers, still Eleven in some way. Nobody argued with what she had just said. The tension was dissolved and they were left feeling deflated and flummoxed, allowing the crackling fire to fill out the silent for them.

Nancy carefully added some new sticks to it and checked on the water they planned on making coffee with. It had miraculously remained in its container. The explosion seemed to have been a light show more than a physical impact. The flames swallowed the new addition of sticks without spitting blue flames or anything of the sort. In fact, it was as if it never even happened. The only proof left from the event was the memory of it.

Mike finally dared to step closer to let it unfreeze his body. Dustin stood on the other side of the construction doing the same thing, rubbing his hands and lifting one foot, then the other towards the fire. Steve kept running his hand through his hair nervously until all the hairs had disconnected from one another and draped in every direction instead of sitting together in a solid arrangement.

”The water’s boiling,” Nancy told them.

She poured some water into the plastic mugs they had brought along. They only brought three of them so they’d have to share. It was better than bringing too much to carry. Then she put some instant coffee into and stirred before handing them out. Mike and Dustin got one cup each since they were so cold. Reeking hot coffee had never tasted better, the only problem was how the mug wasn’t isolated so he had to hold it by the rim on the top in order not not burn his fingers off. It was a pleasant problem.

”So, what do we do now?” Lucas asked. Mike passed him the mug and he sipped some.

”We dive!” Mike repeated impatiently, but he didn’t take the initiative to actually do it. He remained by the bonfire, still freezing. Nobody else took the lead either. Instead they stood lamely at the same spot and just looked at each other, as if everyone was waiting for the other to make the plan happen.

As a kid Mike used to be bolder, he was annoyingly bossy at times even, but at least he got things done and didn’t loiter around waiting in vain. If he wanted to do something he simply did it. But some time in high school he and most other kids matured into believing in democracy and discussions, they learned that listening to other people was important and acknowledging foreign perspectives was a sign of wisdom.

In many ways that insight was a good thing but it could also slow you down substantially. Mike had no memory of discussing where to eat for forty minutes as an eight year old, but now it happened frequently. The endless sequences of ’what do you want?’, ’I don’t know, what do you want?’, ’I don’t know’ were tiring but Mike didn’t want to be that selfish jerk who gave other people orders and forced them to follow his lead.

The weird thing was that the decisions were rarely crucial to begin with. Most people seriously didn’t care what they were going to eat, which movie they were going to watch, which video game they were going play, whether to go out or stay at home, whose place they were going to stay at or whatever. It was just a symbolic gesture of kindness to listen to one another, but the practical outcome of the submissive replies was that everyone’s time got wasted and there was less time left to actually have fun together because the planning itself devoured half of the day instead. Mike thought it was ludicrous, but he didn’t want to be perceived at rude so he conformed to the norm and tried to not lose his temper when people refused to give him straight answers.

Right now he truly wished that there was a definite leader in their group who would just tell them what to do and everyone would simply do it without questioning it or objecting to it with counter arguments and other suggestions. Lucas passed the coffee back to him and he tried to just enjoy the bitter taste the best he could to avoid thinking about how useless this whole bonfire-cuddle-break was. If Mike had only had a better idea of what to do, he would have claimed the leader position, but if he didn’t know better than anybody else, wasn’t it arrogant to do so?

Max knelt down by the fire. Her hair blended in perfectly with the flames. She pointed with a stick in in the pile of burning ones, watched them rearrange themselves and the fire’s shape changed just slightly as a consequence of that. She ran a finger along the outside of one of the rocks which made up the circle around the fire and looked at the dark ashes on the tip, thoughtfully.

”What is it, Max?” Jane inquired, standing above her, watching curiously.

”I don’t know, but — ” Max rubbed her index finger against her thumb, transferring ashy traces to the thumb too. ” — do you think Will made this fireplace? To me it looks like someone has used this fireplace quite recently. And I mean — just look at this!”

She pulled at the Kit Kat package squeezed under one of the rocks and held it in front of her for the others to see. Mike had noticed it when they investigated the lake area earlier. The plastic wrapping looked practically new. Max shrugged and stood up again, still holding it in her hand.

”Do you remember just how many Kit Kats we found in Will’s dorm?” Lucas asked rhetorically.

His face lit up like a light bulb. He nodded keenly but received only some shrugs in return. Their lack of excitement didn’t bother him. Max handed the wrapping over and Lucas investigated it like it was a valuable treasure. His glasses reflected the light from the fire, making his eyes look conspicuously intense.

”It’s bold to assume that it’s Will’s. Kit Kat is a super common snack,” Mike said, though he hoped that Lucas was right. ”Could be anyone’s really.”

”Yes, but how many Kit Kat addicts do we know who may or may not have hung around this bonfire in recent history?” Lucas replied shrewdly. He wavered the Kit Kat wrapping in front of Mike’s face, smiling so much that Mike had to push his face away for being too annoying, chuckling. Lucas didn’t cave in.

Max just laughed at his enthusiasm, shook her head. For a split second Mike wondered if Lucas reacted this way because he intended to make a move on Max again, despite that she made it very clear the last time they broke up in high school that it was over for good.

”No, really!” Lucas insisted, ”This could mean something!”

”Yeah, but what’s new about it? We’re already pretty sure that Will’s been here at some point, aren’t we? The question we need an answer to is how he found the gate, if there is one.” Dustin gestured with his hand towards the lake, which was looking as dead as ever. Lucas sighed, discouraged. He squeezed the Kit Kat wrapping into his pocket and pushed his glasses up.

”Okay, these discussions aren’t getting anywhere at this point — let’s just try something, just whatever!” Steve interrupted, clapping his hands together a couple of times as if to wake them up, get their attention. It had to be a trick he had learned from school. Mike found it hilarious how he was getting into the role of a teacher, making them his students. ”Let’s do as Mike suggested — let’s dive in! And if it doesn’t work, then we’ll have to think of something else, alright? We - can - do - it!” Steve cheered, wavering his arms around it the air, skipping from one foot to the other to build up some energy.

Dustin just frowned, stifling a chortle. He shook his head nope and walked away from the bonfire.

Steve pulled his shirt over his head and threw it aside. Before anybody had even reacted he was taking his jeans off, revealing some hairy thighs and cutesy boxers. Mike chuckled and the sudden turn. Fair enough, he thought. He took the sweater off as well. The warmth he had managed to regain blew right out of him with the very first breeze that stroke his skin. Better hurry and make the pain short, they couldn’t waste another moment.

”Way to go, Mikey!” Steve clapped his hands in front of the others’ faces. ”Come on! You too!”

He did a little dance which was honestly worse than Ted Wheeler’s attempt at being groovy at uncle Jackson’s wedding. It looked like a spasm more than anything, to be honest. Max, Jane and Nancy started undressing without a word.Nancy folded her clothes, put them on a boulder and got changed into a proper bathing suit, which made Steve laugh (”How old-school Nancy Wheeler of you!”). She threw a shoe at him in response with all her strength, which was in fact a lot fiercer than one would think when first meeting her. Steve shrieked.

Lucas had a look on his face which could only mean that he was somewhere in between astonished and utterly confused, his head pushed slightly forward, eyes squinting as though Steve’s dancing was a revelation of some sort.

”You want to swim with your clothes on, huh?!” Steve bellowed. He poked at Lucas’ stomach with a finger, skipping from one foot to the other as if the muddy shore was blazing hot and burned his feet. Poke, poke. ”Take it off, big guy! Whoo! Night swimming! So much fun! Yay! We love toxic water! Let’s go!”

Now they were all laughing, even Lucas had caved in. While he undressed Steve explained to them that this was his magic trick when the students were getting gloomy. It was useless to try to teach them something if they were asleep, he said. Getting them to wake up was the first step, getting them to pay attention was the second and hammering some spicy knowledge into their tiny little heads was the third. Motivation would come naturally when the kids realized what they were capable of. If the circumstances had been different, Mike would have loved to discuss it more (his high school teachers for instance didn’t seem to agree with Steve’s take on education and boy, their idea of teaching was something else) — but this was not the time. 

Mike waited just by the waterline, heart pounding in his chest. It made him forget about the cold, it felt like he was heated from within from the sheer excitement. He didn’t even have the patience to wait for the rest to follow.

”Guys, I’ll go in!” he announced. ”If I see anything, I’ll come right up. You better have the backpacks ready and follow me if I tell you to, alright?”

”Wait! Mike!” Dustin hurried down to the water to join him, hand in the air.

Nancy put the rest of the sticks from the pile into the fire, hoping that it’d still burn when they returned — if they returned. They had the backpacks nearby. She watched nervously as her brother and Dustin floundered out in the water again, this time more determined. She held her sweater around her like a little blanket.

A bat flew past above, making Dustin dodge and curse in surprise. They were as far as as they had been previously in no time. The water almost reached the bottom edge of Mike’s boxers, meaning that they had already soaked a good portion of Dustin’s. The feeling of clay beneath the feet was as unfamiliar and gross this time.

”So we just dive right in, then?” Dustin said.

”We’re close to the steep. It’s incredibly deep from there. We won’t reach the bottom, there’s no way, but I think we should try to get as far down as possible.”

Mike took a tentative step forward, feeling with his foot along the sea bottom. It was sloping downwards more radically for every foot ahead. Five feet further and they’d need to crane their necks to breath at the surface. Ten feet more and they’d probably have twenty feet of water beneath them. Twenty more and they would have sixty feet down to the land.

Mike felt insignificant already. The vast amount of water could so easily swallow him, consume him entirely. The fact that the water wasn’t even normal water made it even harder to coerce himself to dive in. If he and Dustin drowned nobody would find them. It wasn’t even possible to see one’s own hand just beneath the surface, the liquid was just a monochrome, noxious darkness.

”Let’s go. I won’t be easier because we wait.”

Dustin clapped Mike on the shoulder. He nodded firmly in return. They waddled as far out as they could get before they couldn’t reach anymore. The cold water was suffocating, having it rise one inch at the time was pure torture. Mike found himself wondering why there wasn’t a trampoline anywhere so they could jump right in, but on second thought he knew very well why there wasn’t a trampoline. Why the hell would anyone swim here for fun?

Trying to keep their faces above the surface was getting increasingly difficult. They had to move constantly or else they’d sink into the clay at the bottom, devouring them like the quicksand Mike used to be so fascinated with as a child.

”Aright, here we go, let’s do it,” Mike said, neck craned as much as he could.

”One… two… three!”

Mike took a deep breath and plunge himself toward, head first, into the dark. His brain felt like it froze to ice immediately, it couldn’t form a coherent thought whatsoever but he could feel the impact of Dustin’s movements in the water, so he knew they were not too far away from each other. He couldn’t see a thing and having his eyes open only hurt so he kept them closed. There was probably seaweed and dirt swirling around in the water, hence why it stung so badly.

Like he expected, the steep was just ahead of them. There was no bottom to be reached no matter how deep he forced himself. The pressure made his ears feel like they were about to explode, but he kept going for as long as he could hold his breath.

Oddly, the water felt less dense the deeper he got. He had no idea how many feet down he had reached, but at one point the water started feeling more like weightless nothingness, a mass so thin that it felt like floating. It wasn’t cold anymore. It wasn’t warm either. In fact, it was as if the water didn’t exist anymore. No pressure, no temperature, no weight.

He knew that this was it, this was the aberration which they had been looking for, but he was running out of air. As fast as he could he started swimming towards the surface again. It had only been less than a minute. Mike had never been good at holding his breath, especially not under such extreme circumstances. The closer to the surface he got, the denser the material became again. It started feeling like water again. It was thick to move through, cold and heavy.

When he came to the surface he gasped loudly. Just beside him Dustin had also popped up, coughing. They looked at each other, startled, wide-eyed. Mike swam closer to the shore so he could stand on the sea floor. His hair was glued to his forehead, water trickling down his face. He swept the hair back, shrugged. His breathing was still heavy, desperate and dryer than ever before. It felt as if all the moisture in his throat had evaporated.  
”Did you feel it?” Mike panted. Uttering sounds was a challenge when his face was so numb. Every muscle seemed to have lost its ability to relax and tense up, making his face ridiculously bland.

”The vacuum? Yes, I felt it.” Dustin’s curly hair looked almost flat. His skin was flushed deep red and his lips almost blue but he had a victorious grin on his face, despite trembling. His eyes looked so exhilarated he almost looked insane. ”Something has to be down there. The water is just a fraud.”

”Yes!” Mike nodded stiffly.

He could feel his heart beating. Every pump sent a wave through his body. It truly felt like a machine was working with full force inside of him. It was an overall awful feeling, but the extreme conditions made him feel more alive than he had felt before. It reminded him that he was a human person made out of flesh and bone, with a beating heart and lungs, a being which was a creation of nature and that used to thrive amid mountains, rivers and woodlands before it was domesticated by its own ancestors. Mike felt wild. It was a delighting feeling, addictive even.

He smiled to himself, looked up in the skies above. Stars were visible now, like a million tiny diamonds distributed over an endless canvas. A universe below him, another universe above. Mike felt not just wild, but eternal. This was life, wasn’t it? Life in its purest form. Raw and wild and cruel but also intoxicatingly beautiful.

”Did you see anything?” Jane asked, already standing in the lake with water up to her mid-calfs. She had her arms wrapped around her, shivering already.

”I think you better come!” Dustin replied, on the brink of bursting out laughing.

When he made eye-contact with Mike they both did. It was euphoric, profound laughter, a celebrations of nothing in particular. In a brief moment of sobriety, Mike wondered if it was the lake that made them feel this way, remembering how this was not the first time today it made them so bewildered. Not that it mattered though. Mike stretched his arms out and his elbows hurting reluctantly as he unfurled them, but it was immediately forgotten about when he looked up at the stars. He wasn’t even conscious about the fact that his mouth hung open in awe.

Their friends came floundering towards them. Steve groaned about the cold. They had the backpacks along with them but their clothes were left on the shore, looking like shattered debris, except for Nancy’s neat pile. The fire still burned. It showed no signs of vibrant blue flames.

When Mike had calmed down a little he peeked over his shoulder, instilled the view of the shore and the trees on top of the slope. A twitching nostalgia afflicted him as a thought crossed his mind — what if they wouldn’t make it back? They had so much faith in that if they could only find Will and Holly, they’d be able to bring them back, as if finding them was the only quest. Mike hadn’t even reflected about the potential that they’d find them, but not make it back alive, none of them. That they’d die all together in an alternative dimension while Karen Wheeler drank tea at Nana’s and the Hopper-Byers were up in Maine waiting for the strange burglar to reveal their true nature.

”I sure hope they’re waterproof enough,” Max muttered when she couldn’t hold the bag above the surface anymore.

The plastic packages inside made the bags float but the water still soaked through the canvas fabric. The phones and Will’s drawings were the only things in need of sealing protection, and they had spent a good deal of time and plastic to keep them safe inside the backpacks. They could only hope that their efforts were enough, or else they’d have to manage without them.

They were now within an arm’s length from one another, huddled together closely. The slopes and trees surrounding them towered menacingly. The other side of the lake was a far distance ahead of them. Even when they were clustered, they were insignificant and small. Mike could physically feel the sense of infinity leave his body, making him realize more and more how mortal he was and how afraid he was.

”Let’s get in! Now! Just dive as deep as you can, alright?” he commanded, knowing that waiting any longer would only make him feel weaker.

Jane inhaled and popped her head under the water right away. Max and Lucas followed. Steve, Dustin and Nancy next. Mike watched them go before plunging in himself. The brain freeze saved him in the way that disarming your enemy would on a battle field. Once he couldn’t think anymore, he did okay. 

He kept swimming downwards. The pressure kept increasing for a while. And then it stopped. The sweet relief of nothingness washed through him. The lack of cold was sheer bliss and it truly felt like floating midair. He had wondered many times what it must feel like for astronauts to be weightless and his imagination had done a pretty good job at creating the idea in his head, but to actually be freed from the gravity was batty. Every second of his life he had lived affected by Earth’s gravity, until now. To think that this was the constant reality at most places in the galaxy was even weirder, because that meant that Earth was the strange exception and this was normal.

He could no longer feel his friends around him but he was pretty sure they were still there. If he wasn’t mistaken, he could actually hear someone’s voice. How that was possible he wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was just an echo in his head, it couldn’t be real. Sound didn’t travel like that in nothingness, that was why the universe was so quiet all the time.

Mike opened his eyes, but he was still surrounded by solid blackness. He turned his head, tried to figure out from which direction the voice had come. It was muffled and distant, but he could tell it was Dustin. He floundered around with his arms, tried to move deeper, but the concept of up and down and deep and shallow and left and right were distorted and confusing. He was horrifyingly disoriented, completely lost, and it scared him. He was also in desperate need of some oxygen but couldn’t seem to get back to the surface. It was as if the surface itself was gone.

”Breathe! We can breathe! Don’t worry!”

It was Dustin’s voice and it was crisper than the first time. It was not the sound of someone talking under water, there were no bubbles erupting either. Dustin repeated himself. Mike could only hope he was right because he couldn’t hold his breath anymore. He inhaled sharply. Every part of his rational brain expected water to fill his lungs, expected violent coughing and drowning — but none of that happened. He inhaled oxygen rich, lukewarm air.


	11. Chapter 11

Mike was sure he had died. The sudden switch from falling from a height so high it didn’t even exist, to laying flat on his back on a soft surface, staring up at a clear blue sky without any pain was so surreal that it just couldn’t be true. He didn’t dare to move. He knew that he was only wearing boxers as his other clothes were probably still somewhere on the shore by the Lover’s Lake.

He could feel some itchy strands poking at his skin. The scent of hay and summer filled his nostrils. In some way, he had to be alive. Dead people couldn’t feel things, could they? The first full-sentenced thought that popped up in his mind was that this had to be the proof that even queers were welcome in heaven, because this couldn’t possibly be hell. And it wasn’t the nothingness as his atheist friend from uni had told him about, because the ultimate nothingness he had just managed to escape and this was definitely not the same thing.

Something poked aggressively at his torso, forcing Mike to move. He yielded away and looked up. An old man with a beard stood beside him with a long stick, poking at him impatiently while muttering something in that foreign language. If the man wasn’t so frumpy, Mike would have thought that the language was pretty.

The man wore frayed clothes, a straw hat hung on his back by a thread around his neck. Mike just stared. Was this farmer god? No, it couldn’t be… The man poked at Mike again and again until Mike finally rolled to the side and slumped down from a haystack, landing on soft grass instead with a thud.

”Chill! What’s your problem?!” Mike spat, struggling to stand up on his feet.

His feet seemed wobbly, his knees like jelly. As if he had never walked before, he teetered away from the haystack and the old man until he slumped down directly on the ground a bit further away. He looked around him, unsure of what to think about it.

The sun was bright and warm. It seemed to be afternoon, budding evening. There were several haystacks around him. A young boy was helping a man which had to be his father making the stacks even in size. A wagon and a donkey waited at the top of the hill where Mike found himself at. The donkey munched grass peacefully, flickering its large ears around as the flies nagged at her. Mike rubbed his eyes, half expecting the view to look differently when he stopped, but when he opened his eyes it still looked the same as before. Idyllic countryside.

There was a lake at the bottom of the hill. There were cliffs from which some children plunged into the water, laughing happily. A woman with a long, inconvenient dress strolled near the waterline with a basket at her elbow. She looked like she came straight out of a medieval themed movie, a peasant from a poor village or something. The old man with the stick, the boy and his father had the same countenance.

Reek rose to the skies from a house at the other side of the lake. In fact, there seemed to be a full community located there. The houses were made out of wood, thick timber logs and sturdy materials. The roofs were covered in moss and hay. Mike couldn’t see very well from this spot, but there seemed to be a lot of activity there at the other side. The vague sounds from a vivacious market reached all the way to the top of the hill, traveling across the water with ease. Music, chatter, yelling, horses and the clappering from hooves against cobblestoned streets.

There were also boats on the lake. Some of them matched the scenery perfectly, looked like ordinary fishing boats, classic and simple, but then there were a couple of ships which were massive creations with multiple masts, though the sails weren’t raised at the moment. There was scarcely any wind. Why someone would put boats of that magnitude in a restricted lake made no sense since they were clearly adapted to sail long distances across wild oceans.

Mike had to slap his face repeatedly. This was too weird. The astonishment and utter confusion made him sit there for several minutes before even remembering how he ended up here and why he had come in the first place. He also remembered not coming alone, so where were his friends? Did they die for real? Did they end up in hell instead? Mike got back on his feet and this time his body felt steadier but his head was still spinning.

”Excuse me!” Mike said, raising a hand towards the younger boy and his father instead of the old man with the stick since he obviously didn’t like him very much.

They looked at him as though he was a maladapted weirdo. Sure, he was pretty much naked, but so were the kids swimming in the lake so Mike didn’t think their reaction could be justified like that. On the other hand, perhaps the reason why they stared wasn’t because he was half naked but because he had just fallen from the sky, but Mike still didn’t think they had the right to be so flummoxed. He was obviously the most confused one here.

The boy said something to his father in that foreign language and the father nodded. The boy hurried off after that, his scrawny legs moving as fast as they could. Mike swept his hair out of his face and muttered something incoherent to himself. Then he put both hands on his hips. The man didn’t say anything but he had stopped arranging the hay to look to him curiously. They dwelled like this for a moment before Mike understood that he’d have to make sense out of this situation, despite feeling an urgent desire to just lay down and go to sleep, hope that it’d solve itself while he was taking a nap.

”Sir, may I ask where I am?” Mike asked at last. The words came out like a heavy sigh.

The man looked at him as if he was really trying to understand, but just telling by his facial expression he obviously didn’t. He scratched his beard and stuck his hayfork into the ground. After a moment of awkward silence he dug his hand into his pocket and brought out a coin. He held it towards Mike and Mike, without really knowing why, accepted it. He looked at the coin, flipped it and concluded that this was definitely not the money he was raised with in the late American 1900’s. Mike cracked a taut smile, trying to show his gratitude although this coin meant nothing to him as long as he didn’t know where he was and what year it was. Did he travel back in time?

”Ehm… My friends.” Mike gestured with his body, made faces as though it would be easier for the poor man to understand him if he strained his mouth and wavered with his hands. It gave him instant flashbacks to the time when his mom’s friend and her son who only spoke Spanish came to visit and Mike was forced to play with the son since they were the same age. ”My friends, have you seen them? There’s my sister Nancy Wheeler, then there’s Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Steve Harrington, Jane Byers… have you seen them?”

The man suddenly cocked his head, raised a finger in the air. He nodded, smiling. His teeth were discolored and crooked. Mike didn’t know what he was supposed to do to make sense out of that reaction. He just pretended to appreciate these news, whatever they meant. He scratched his scalp, anxiously looking from side to side, hoping that something else would pop up and save him.

”Byers!” the man said, still nodding as if that was enough to communicate.

At least the two were equally useless at making themself understood. Mike pushed his head forward in a vulture position, still smiling the best he could, nodding despite not grasping anything at all. ’Byers? You know Byers?’ Mike asked him repeatedly and the man just kept replying with ’Byers!’ in the same tone as before, like broken CD stuck on the same part. This was the least efficient conversation Mike had ever had. He sure hoped it wasn’t even real, that it was just a strangely vivid dream that would soon come to an end. Unfortunately, this imbecilic exchange seemed to go on forever. When both of them had repeated the word ’Byers’ invariably for about a hundred times while nodding mechanically, Mike had enough.

”Michael Wheeler!” he said, pointing at himself. This at least appeared to make sense and it finally made the conversation take a different turn.

The man cheered, letting go of the hayfork to raise his hands above his head in a celebrating, almost praising fashion. He repeated the gesture several times until the old man with the stick spat some discouraging comment in his direction, making him stop abruptly. His face, prematurely wrinkled, discolored by sunspots and venerable as years of experience seemed to have shaped it, suddenly looked a surprising lot alike the young boy who had ran off just a moment ago. They had the same innocent eyes which made the man look harmless, despite his sturdy frame and hands with thickened skin so rough they almost looked like gloves. Whatever the old man had said, he seemed to take it directly to heart. Mike felt a bit bad for him even without understanding what the old man had said.

The old man linked over to the other two, his stick in a tight grip. Mike took a step back as he came closer, not wanting to get beaten up. Even the man winced a little. He grabbed the hayfork and looked like he was just about to leave when the older smiled for the first time. Mike assumed it was the first time ever because the man with the hayfork looked as though he had just witnessed a miracle, mouth hanging open.

”William Byers!” the old man croaked, pronunciation a bit unusual but the message was clear. Mike let out a sigh of delighted relief, nodding. 

The old man’s face softened as he spoke the name. He pointed towards the village at the other side of the lake with the stick. Then he pointed towards the donkey and the wagon and let the tip of the stick wander around the lake until it stopped at the village. Mike understood perfectly.

He immediately forgave the stick-man for being poking at him (it honestly didn’t even hurt, it was just very annoying). He put his hands together to express his gratitude and the old man just waved it off like rubbish with a disdainful frown. Whatever kindness had clad his face for that one second when he said Will’s name washed right off and with the same grumpy expression as he had had when Mike first saw him, he wandered away.

Mike turned back to the lake and peered to see the village. Thinking about finally getting to see Will made him so excited he could barely contain it. To think that Will was actually within reach made him forget about all the hardships he had suffered to get here. The village did look pretty nice from afar at least and Mike knew that Will would love to spend some time in a medieval community. The landscape around here was altogether very beautiful actually. There were mountains in the distance and a castle loomed in the bushes surrounding the lake.

It took Mike another moment before he realized that the lake had a perfect heart shape.

***

Mike helped the man fill the wagon behind the donkey with hay so speed to process up. He was still wearing nothing but boxers but that would make a good story later, if he just made it out of there. He had no watch to keep track of time, but he supposed it was around six in the evening when they finally left the hill. The old man with the stick waved them goodbye and was left behind.

Mike sat on top of the stack, tried his best to not fall off as the donkey pulled them forward. Every bump in the road almost knocked him off. He clung onto one of the wooden bars which kept the hay in place for dear life while his legs sprawled in every direction. The man, who sat at a comfortable seat just behind the donkey, looked over his shoulder and laughed intermittently at the sight. Mike sort of hated him for it but he owed him one for letting him ride along to the village. He had still not managed to ask for the man’s name.

The road ran all the way around the lake. It was dusty and uneven, the color of dried soil and rusty sand. Grit lay distributed inconsistently, making the wheels wobble a little but not too unpleasantly. Once Mike found a position where he could sit without falling off, he started to enjoy himself. He lifted his gaze and tried to instill as much as possible of this new environment which he had come to. The man spoke to him sometimes, pointing at different buildings and people, but Mike couldn’t understand a word of what he tried to explain. The soft sound of the language was nice though, it sounded almost like a sweet lullaby and it seemed to blend in perfectly with the surrounding.

Sometimes the lake disappeared out of sight when the foliage blocked the view, but then it appeared again, aways on his right side, glittering beautifully in the evening sun. Wherever he was, he knew that it wasn’t the ordinary world because the lake looked so ordinary, ironically enough, and it wasn’t the Upside Down — unless the Upside Down had gone through a drastic transformation since ’84.

From the wagon Mike saw houses, people, animals and vegetation. The children pointed and laughed when the wagon passed by. The humiliation was so bad that Mike laughed too in lack of other things to do in response. He even waved at two boys who cheered loudly in return, pulling at each other’s shirts.

The boys were rosy cheeked and cute, with grass stains on their knees and arrows in their hands. Mike had to look twice. At first he thought the arrows had plastic tips, but the second time he realized that they were made out of actual metal. The sharp tip glistered as the sun reflected in the hammered iron. Mike was tempted to tell them that those were dangerous and definitely not appropriate toys for kids, but he clammed up and stared instead.

The more he saw, the more he understood that this was real because not only did he see it like a hallucination before his eyes, but he felt it, smelled it, heard it and even tasted it when he accidentally got some hay stuck in his mouth. It couldn’t be a dream either. Mike had had many vidid dreams before but never one like this.

The final evidence that made him realize this was the tall, slender woman who stood near a building which had to be a school of some sort with a book in her hands. Lucious, raven hair draped from her scalp all the way down to her waist in tight corkscrew coils. Her brown skin was impossibly smooth and radiant and when she looked up at Mike and their eyes met for a split second, Mike was sure she had just bewitched him for life.

She nodded politely, greeting him. Her posture and body language was so elegant and graceful it was mesmerizing, but what really made Mike stare at her was the pointed, enlarged ears which stood out from the side of her head amongst the curls. Before she vanished out of sight she flicked her hand in his direction and he could feel a subtile wind carrying herbal scents brush against his face. He touched his cheek with his fingertips. He couldn’t feel it anymore, but he could definitely smell it and dreams didn’t smell.

That’s when he couldn’t deny it anymore. But as assured as he was about it being real, he was about it being a fantasy world. He never thought those two conditions could coexist, they seemed to be contradicting by nature, but there was no other way to explain it. Seeing that the butterflies fluttering around in the air were actually fairies confirmed it once more, just in case the elven witch wasn’t enough, and after that Mike started noticing one thing after the other, each as fascinating and unbelievable.

The wagon ride wasn’t too long. A part of him wanted it to go on forever. They had soon made it to the other side of the lake, closer to the pointed tip of the heart shape. Mike became ever more self-conscious about the fact that he was only wearing underwear and was rapidly approaching a crowded village or market place of some sort. He could already hear the chatter, music and hammering as though he was nearby. He wondered whether it was a better decision to hide in the hay or try to communicate this concern with the man. It wouldn’t be too difficult to make him understand that Mike wanted some clothes, would it?

The wagon rounded a large tree and kept moving straight forward. There were trees on both sides of the road, immense, ancient trees with branches reaching in every direction, bird nests and tree houses everywhere possible and roots partially covered with moss, partially sticking up through the ground. Birds chirped happily, flew back and fourth and like in a Disney movie they seemed oddly human. Mike was too astonished to even care about his nudity for a moment.

A guy with blonde, tousled hair had stopped further ahead by the side of the road, peering in their direction. He carried a heavy-looking linen sack in his arms. Some grains slipped through a tiny hole at the bottom. The birds were quick to pick them up after him. Mike noticed that he wore no shoes but it seemed perfectly intentional and despite being dressed in unconventional clothes, this guy was definitely human.

The man slowed the donkey down, raised his hands and greeted him amiably and the guy greeted him back in that foreign language which Mike didn’t understand. His voice sounded friendly and a little raspy as if he had a stubborn cold.

”Oh, look at this! Has to be Wheeler, am I right?” he guy said, looking up at Mike as they passed, smiling cheekily. He shuffled the bag with grains into a better position, held his arm underneath for support, his head forced a little backwards in order to not get the fabric rubbed in his face.

”You speak English?!” Mike blurted, twisting his body to get another second together to talk as the wagon kept moving forward. He considered throwing himself off the haystack just to stay with the only one whom he could communicate with.

”There’s more of them in town, don’t worry. Will’s at Tinkerbell’s. Nice to meet you, Wheeler. See you later!”

He waited until the wagon was too far away to talk before trudging away in the opposite direction. Mike wanted to ask for his name, more details or just anything at all, but before his futile brain had managed to form a sentence out of the shattered thoughts racing around, he was already long gone. Mike kept looking after him for as long as his sight allowed him to. When he was nothing but a tiny dot of blonde hair on a stick figure body in the distance, Mike gave up and turned back straight forward, swearing under his breath.

The man pulled the reins and the donkey stopped, heehawing with its ears flopping around. They were still not at the destination but Mike could see it looming behind the foliage. Curiously, he peeped down from the haystack.

The man had left his seat and walked around to the side, his shirt in his hand, an undershirt left on his upper body. He stretched it towards Mike with a pitying smile. Mike didn’t understand the pitying aspect of the gesture, he was relived to finally have something to wear, but when his hand grabbed the shirt he understood. It was damp with sweat and smelled tartly of hay, stable and dirt. It appeared to had been white once, but now it was stained and old and looked more like a sandy beige. There was a hole at the left elbow.

Mike thanked him anyway and put it on. Albeit the repulsive condition, Mike felt a comforting sense of belonging once he wore it. Most people around here wore this type of frayed, dirty attire — everyone but the elf lady who was impeccably dressed and stood out like a luxurious thorn in the village community — so nobody could judge him for doing the same. Since his boxers were plain, black and reached a decent bit down the thigh they could probably pass for shorts if you had poor eyesight or didn’t pay attention.

The donkey pulled them all the way to the point where the road ended and an intricate community began. Mike sliced off the haystack, thanked the man the best he could without having a common language. How he was supposed to return the shirt, he had not figured out yet, but he’d come up with something. It seemed like the man didn’t have any intentions of going anywhere any time soon. He walked off and left Mike behind with the donkey without expressing any concern regarding the clothing.

The place had seemed insubstantial from the other side, but it was actually quite large. There was an open square at the center which was cobblestoned and inconsistent, though the stones were barely visible as merchants had lined up at every spot available and a crowd of people idled around amid the vegetables, tools and meats.

A goat ran around in the middle of the crowd, looking unbothered by the noise and perfectly content with the situation. The merchants yelled, some in English, some in other languages. It was impossible to hear what anyone had to say either way. A group of musicians played cheerful melodies at a small stage, stationed at the side of the square, almost in the bushes which surrounded the marketplace at every side but one, which bordered to the lake instead.

The timber houses which Mike had seen from the other side were quite massive up close. Smoke raised from the chimney at the top of the largest house. A man draped a rug over a washing line which hung between the largest and one of the smaller houses. A group of women sat on a bench outside, laughing raucously while drinking from brass goblets. Above the door there was a billowing flag which said Tinkerbell’s. Mike had almost forgotten everything about it already, too occupied trying to make sense out of the overwhelming impressions, but then he remembered. Will was at Tinkerbell’s.

”Excuse me!” Mike repeated countless of times as he as fast as he could, which was very slowly, he made his way across the square, bumping into people every two seconds, getting startled by merchants bellowing right in his poor ears. Nobody really listened when he excused himself. But for the first time, Mike had a goal, a place to go. He wasn’t entirely lost anymore. That was a good feeling, though this market place was suffocating and stressful.

The door to Tinkerbell’s stood wide open. A bag of rocks was placed so that the door couldn’t close. The women on the bench eyed him up and down and whispered something as he passed. He soon realized that Tinkerbell’s was a pub or a restaurant of some sort, with three floors and everything built out of rustic wood. This was probably the vibe that pub in North Carolina aspired to achieve, but this was the real deal. The men who sat in there could be legitimate vikings, Mike wouldn’t be surprised if they actually were. Long, thick beards, strong bodies, rough mannerisms, the clothes and the scars on their faces — there was really nothing that ruined the image, they seemed to be authentic vikings for real. They were definitely not bankers and layers anyway, that much was clear.

”Sir!” a girl exclaimed, almost stumbling into Mike.

”Sorry!” Mike apologized and kept making his way into the building, not realizing that the girl tried to get his attention

Her voice was overpowered by the sounds of the older, louder people in there and the perpetual slamming of glasses, goblets and cutlery against plates. Mike’s head was already aching. His eyes flickered around searching for Will, desperately.

”Sir!” the girl repeated, now grabbing at his shirt. ”This way!”

Mike stopped. The girl, probably a bit younger than himself, somewhere in her mid-teens, pointed towards the ceiling. Before Mike could process what was happening, she pulled him along towards the stairs. He followed her to the second floor, where the noise wasn’t as obtrusive and the air wasn’t pervaded by the smell of sweat and alcohol. Mike let out a sigh of relief, brushed his hair out of his face. He paused for a minute or two before even looking up at the girl who waited patiently, standing next to him, just calming himself down.

They dwelled in a hallway with four doors, two on each side. There were paintings on the walls and some kind of trophy standing on a pedestal in front of the window. Mike could see the market square at the other side of the glass. The evening sun was slowly setting. Mike felt as though he had just witnessed a sunset, he recalled spending in at the shore by the Lover’s Lake in Hawkins. It felt like ages ago, but in reverse. This, whatever was happening now, felt like ages ago. But it clearly wasn’t, it was happening now. Mike sighed, rubbed his face. This was a habit he needed to find a substitute for, his hands were dirty after working with the haystacks and crawling around on the ground. He now had dirt on his cheeks and brow bone.

”Hi,” the girl said at last, forcing him to face her.

”Hi,” he replied quietly.

She was fiddling with the braid which draped over her shoulder, down her chest. There was a tiny embellishment at the end of it. She avoided Mike’s eyes shyly and his staring seemed to make her nervous. She couldn’t know that Mike stared at literally everyone and everything since landing on that haystack a while ago. This time he stared because she didn’t look as medieval as the rest. She had a subtile sophistication in her demeanor which reminded Mike of any common girl from college. Right now it seemed out of place.

”You’re here for, Will, right?” she asked. She held her hands behind her back, swayed innocently, head tilted a little to the side.

”Is he here?” Mike looked at the doors, pointing tentatively towards them. The four doors were made out of the same study wood as the rest of the house, with handmade iron handles attached.

”Yes. Some of your other friends too, I believe,” she said, smiling.

Actually, on a second thought, she didn’t resemble the girls from college that much. She had a face and an aura which made Mike think of the illustrations in old classics, something like the girl from The little red riding hood or Hansel and Gretel. Her face was round, her chubby cheeks pink and squeezable, with a button nose right in the center and clear eyes.

She looked at Mike without moving. He thought it was given that he wanted her to take him to Will, but apparently it wasn’t. She seemed stuck in a daydream of some sort, completely still. For a moment her eyes looked just like they were made out of actual glass, which was very unsettling. She was really just a different type of different, unlike the vikings downstairs but strange in her own way.

Mike cleared his throat into his fist.

”Do you know where he is?” he nudged.

”Oh, yes, of course!” Like a painting come to life, she started moving again. She giggled.

”Could you take me there?”

”This way!”

She guided Mike to the door on the right, the one farthest away from the staircase. She pulled at the handle and the door opened with a creak. She let Mike enter first. Not sure what to expect, Mike took slow, hesitant steps inside.

The room was smaller than the open venue at the ground floor. There were two windows right ahead. The natural light beamed in beautifully, made the room look cosy and welcoming. At first he didn’t realize as he only saw them from behind, but then he recognized Max’s red hair and after that he saw Lucas, Nancy and Jane. They were seated in the corner. A thick pole supporting the ceiling blocked the view so Mike couldn’t see what they were doing, but it was unmistakably them. Mike cracked up in delight. Before he could say something, the door slammed shut behind him as the girl had left them. The sound made them all turn around.

”Mike!” Nancy exclaimed the moment she saw him. She hurried over and hugged him tightly. Mike wrapped his arms around her, rested his face on top of her hair. She let go, visibly touched by the moment. She laughed mirthlessly. ”I thought I wouldn’t see you again!”

”I’m fine, Nancy, it’s okay,” he said. ”What about you?”

Mike eyed her up and down. She wore some proper clothes, a blue dress which reached down to just below her knees, rivaling some sore scratches. Mike had so much he wanted to know so he just blurted one question after the other while Nancy did the same thing and neither of them stopped to actually answer of them. It honestly didn’t matter much. The only thing that mattered was that they were alive and reunited. Jane, Max and Lucas also got up to hug him and participate in the moment. They asked questions as well and expressed how happy they were to see him. Their voices only blended into a messy symphony, resulting in that Mike couldn’t hear what anyone had to say.

”Mike?”

This time Mike heard. He let go of Max and stumbled across the floor towards the corner behind the pillar. And there, sitting on a massive bed, surrounded by chairs, with an empty soup bowl at the nightstand, wrapped in blankets and embroidered linens, he was. So familiar and yet so surreal to finally see, like a phantom brought to life, a daydream made real, human flesh and bone, with a smile on his lips and his hair falling like soft curtains over his forehead and before his eyes.

”Will,” Mike whispered, his voice suddenly devoid of strength.

He knelt down beside the bed and wrapped his arms around the blanket cocoon in which Will, indeed, was. Now he was crying again, probably more than he had ever done since Will vanished (and that included the nights when he blamed himself for the whole deal). Will hugged him back, pulled his head closer. Mike could feel Will’s cheek against the top of his head.

When he inhaled, the scent of Will filled his nostrils, and though it was mixed with unfamiliar aromas from this strange world, it was exactly what he wanted and it was so much better than the scarf he had stolen from Will’s dorm. Mike couldn’t remember if he had ever nuzzled his face into Will’s chest ever before. He was almost grateful for everything that had happened because this reward made it all worth it.

The angle was a bit awkward and uncomfortable while standing on his knees with the hard floor beneath him, the edge of the bed frame against his hipbone, but the feeling of warm arms around his shoulders and his palms against Will’s back was too good to be true. That was the dreamiest thing in this world, beating the elven witch and the vikings downstairs.

”I’m glad you’re here,” Will said.

Mike couldn’t form words, he just gaped and sobbed. When he let go and sat back on his knees beside the bed, his other friends and Nancy had come over and sat down on the chairs surrounding them. Now that they were close he recalled the feeling of the void, the nothingness, and it made him cry even more. He promised himself to never take it for granted again, to let people come close to him, because the feeling of always being far away from other human beings was a millions times worse than the hypothetical risk of moving closer.

Even Lucas was crying, which was a rare sight and he was still clad in nothing but trunks and with sticks in his hair which made the whole thing even weirder. Nancy patted him on the back, chuckling something about a crying orgy while drying her own tears away.

”Where’s Dustin and Steve?” was the first thing Mike managed to phrase when they had calmed down a little.

”Well…” Will began. He adjusted his position, shuffled up so he could sit more straight. He swallowed and scratched his neck. Mike noticed some awful bruises on his lower arm. ”The gate isn’t supposed to be operative yet. It’s not finished. If I had known that you were coming, I could have recommended a different gate, but I didn’t expect visitors to be honest.”

None of the others seemed surprised by this. Mike assumed they had asked Will the same question already and gotten the same answer. Mike blinked, shrugged his head. Hearing his voice through his ears and not just in his head was so soothing, he wanted him to keep talking forever. Mike almost got startled when realizing that he was supposed to reply to it.

”So what does that mean? I’m sorry, it’s a lot to take in right now, I just want to know whether Dustin and Steve and Holly are okay or not,” he floundered.

”Yeah, I get that. I’m sorry. I — ” Will paused, a woeful flash in his eyes ” — This wasn’t my intention at all. I’ll explain, I promise. I’ll find them, no problem. But right now I don’t know for sure where they are. When the gate’s finished you’re supposed to end up in the castle right away. At the moment you may end up somewhere else, but probably not too far way from the castle, so they’re most likely somewhere around here. They’re not stuck in the void and they’re not hurt unless they’ve somehow managed to get hurt since coming here, that much I now for sure. I’m fairy sure Holly was taken in by the children’s troop. They always find the young and lost ones and take them in. I’m sure she’s okay.”

”And where the hell are we?” Mike turned around.

At the other side there was a desk with an oil lamp stationed on top, as well as some books and paper. Heavy, maroon curtains draped draped on each side of the window frames. There were two bookshelves, a cupboard and a drawer as well as a table without any chairs around it as the chairs had been pulled closer to the bed. It seemed like a bedroom, but it was soulless and so impersonal that it had to be a public space.

”We’re at Tinkerbell’s,” Will said, ”This is a relatively new community. It has only been around for a couple of weeks, really. I needed something closer to Hawkins.”

”It doesn’t look like this is a new place exactly,” Max frowned, knocking with her knuckles at the sturdy walls. The wood was had been through some things, Mike could tell. They were creaking, cracked at several spots and had clear signs of damage which couldn’t possibly have been caused in the past few weeks.

”I didn’t want it to feel brand new and modern, it was an intentional choice,” Will shrugged, smiling.

”You made this?” Eleven asked, gesturing around her.

She seemed the calmest about everything. She sat on a chair, one leg crossed over the other. Her hair wasn’t even tangled or anything, she didn’t show any signs of harm and was actually dressed in clothes that fit her nicely, a boyish set that was a lot more practical than the attire Nancy and Max were given. She even had pockets in which she could stuff her hands.

Will shifted his position, making the blankets fall off his shoulders, revealing a simple T-shirt and more wounds. Mike reached out to touch them but Will pulled his arm away, startled. Embarrassed by his own move, Mike snapped his hand back.

”It still hurts a bit,” Will explained, apologetically.

Mike remained seated on the floor by the bed but he kept his hands to himself, safely resting on his lap. He could feel Will looking at him but he yielded his eyes away, abashed by how unstrained he had let himself become. Just for a moment there was no chains holding him back and it scared him. It was more unfamiliar than anything else.

”Will, you have to explain!” Eleven insisted, forcing Mike to stop pitying himself at pay attention to the real issues at hand, which were in fact a lot more critical. She gestured with her hand around them, eyebrows raised. ”Did you make this place?”

”Yes,” he replied bluntly, choking something back. He coughed into his fist. The coughing sounded artificial and forced. His eyes had started to tear up.

His posture, streaky hair and pallor made him look badly ailing, almost resembling a picture of a young man with AIDS which Mike had seen in the newspapers a couple of months ago. It made him very uneasy despite knowing rationally that Will probably hadn’t caught the virus, but fought some dragon or something — hence the bruises — but the mere thought terrified him. Mike much preferred the dragon.

”How? Why? How did this happen? For how long have you been here? We’ve been looking for you!” Eleven pushed, trying to catch Will’s eyes.

Mike wanted to tell her to give him some space, Will was obviously not in a great condition, but he was also desperate to know. Will hated being stared at like this, despite that nobody held any anger towards him. He never liked being the center of attention. The tautness between them was caused by the frustration of not understanding anything at all.

”It’s — ” Will floundered, but never had the chance to say anything before Jane had come up with another question. He was actually crying now, silently.

”El!” Max inflicted at last, giving her a sharp look.

Eleven relaxed again, her intense posture deflated. She apologized and kept looking at Will with great curiosity. Mike could tell that the two had developed an actual sibling bond since moving to Maine together. Just like with Nancy and Mike, they could get intense and impatient, but they eased up and made peace just as quickly. Will let out a subtile sigh of relief, dried his cheeks.

”Guys, look, I’m sorry,” he pleaded. ”This wasn’t my plan, I swear. It really wasn’t. I was going to return back to school and then — I don’t know. Things happened, you know? But it wasn’t my plan.”

Mike wondered just how they were supposed to tell him that they had ransacked his dorm and investigated his art and calendar into the tiniest detail. Thinking about it, where were those items now? Mike turned around, let his eyes wander across the room. There, in a forlorn corner placed on top of a chair, stood two of the backpacks, perfectly dry just like everything else. The lake wasn’t water.

When he turned back to Will, Will was looking at him. Mike understood right away, it afflicted him so brusquely he could physically feel the impact of that look. Right. The restaurant. ’Things happened’. Mike swallowed, turned his face away. Instead he met Lucas’ clueless gaze, but the cluelessness was loud and inquisitive and it was enough to let Mike know that Lucas had noticed already. Mike knew that he’d have to explain a thing or two later, too. But not right now.

”I just needed some space to myself, I guess, so I came here.” Will spoke slowly and quietly. ”I’m sort of in charge in this world. Whatever I want to exists, will exists. More or less, anyway. I don’t know the science behind it, I just found out by coincidence. I wanted to rest and stuff. Had some things to do. Didn’t mean to make you guys worry.”

If Mike wasn’t mistaken, he was profoundly ashamed, hence the crying. It wasn’t pain nor fear. It was shame in its most brutal form. Will appeared to dwindle, taking up less space in the room for every second. He looked a lot like he used to as a child, tiny and frightened like a baby rabbit. 

Mike’s natural instinct was to hold him, but they were not twelve anymore. Will wasn’t a baby, he was an adult, almost as tall as Mike, with more muscles and broader shoulders. Out of the bunch, Mike was actually the lankiest. If anyone were to snap in half like a toothpick, it was him, not Will.

”So, I came here a while ago. I was originally just going to stay for a couple or hours or so, but then I heard some bad news and I had to take care of it, couldn’t leave before I knew what was going on. It took a bit longer than I expected. And then my gate broke so I couldn’t get out. That’s why I had to create a new one, but it seems like it’s having trouble as well apparently.” Will sighed, wrapped the blankets around him again. A tear fell from the tip of his nose.

”Are you okay? Seriously, those don’t look too nice.” Mike pointed at the bruises and the wounds.

”It’s alright. Happens all the time,” Will said, though he was clearly troubled by them. He shrugged, straighten up. The tears had stopped streaming. ”It’s not our biggest problem right now. We have to find Dustin and Lucas and then we have to —”

”How did you get them?” Mike interrupted.

”Sorry? Oh. It’s along story.”

”We’re listening.”

”Not now, please,” Will whined, wavering a hand. ”We have to find Steve and Dustin.”

Max got up from her chair and walked over to the windows. Her skin looked golden it that light. She peered in every possible angle. The rest watched her silently. On the other side of the window the lake spread out. Mike could see a part of a mast at the corner of the window, it had to be one of the ships moored near the market, but from his angle he could mostly see tree tops and sky. Muffled voices and the music could be heard through the glass.

”Will, I know that you need to rest, but can I just ask one last question?” Max asked, not letting go of the view with her eyes. She stood so close to the window that her nose almost pressed against the glass, one hand at the frame.

”Of course,” Will said quietly.

”Is this place real?”

”What do you mean by ’real’? Of course it’s real!” Lucas frowned, confidently as if the question itself was utter nonsense. To Mike it was a mystery how Lucas took that for granted. Didn’t he see any fairies and elves on his way here? Didn’t he see the vikings downstairs? Lucas let his blanket fall off his shoulder when he patted with his hands over his body, on the bed frame and reached down to knock on the floor as if that would prove his point.

”If you created this, does that mean that this is all your imagination?” Nancy sat politely with her hands on her lap next to the bed. She didn’t appear to find this question odd at all.

”Well… It is sort of my imagination but it’s definitely real,” Will assured. ”You can’t separate what happens here from the other world. If you get hurt here, you’re still hurt when you return. It’s not like your real body is asleep in Hawkins right now. Your real bodies are here and everything you see is real — but it’s created by imagination.” There was a hesitant micro pause, a flinch of disgruntle. ”Most of it, anyway,” he finished.

He pushed the blankets aside and struggled his way up from the edge of the bed. Mike was prepared to help him if his feet or knees caved in. They didn’t. Will walked over the floor towards the desk and Mike, Jane and Lucas followed him closely behind. Will tried his best but he clearly limped and his face scrunched in pain every time he put his right foot down.

Then he started looking through some of the papers. He pulled a sheet and handed it over. It was a map, a simplified overview of the United States, but it wasn’t the United States. Jane leaned in to take a closer look, brows furrowed and her mouth pulled to the side in a confused expression. She held Mike’s arm in a clutched grip.

”I don’t even understand this entirely myself, but this is sort of like the Upside Down. It’s much nicer though, I have to say.” Will sounded vaguely proud about this. He pointed with a finger on the map. ”We’re in Hawkins right now. Or, I guess it’s not actually Hawkins, but it’s a different dimension that coexists at the same geographical location.”

”So this is actually the Lover’s Lake, then?” Max asked, turning around. The lake was loomed in at the other side of the window, in front of which she still stood.

”Yes and no!” Will tilted his head from side to side. He looked happier again, his eyes were livelier and he had a warm energy radiating from him. He seemed truthfully grateful to have them there. Mike couldn’t take his eyes off him. Even with the bruises, the unwashed hair and gloomy circles beneath his eyes, Will was pretty.

”Down here, this is where my uni is.” He pointed at the area where North Carolina would normally be located, but on the map it was named something else which Mike couldn’t even guess how it was supposed to be pronounced. ”There’s a community there as well which is much bigger than here, an actual city.”

Mike hummed. He was honestly watching Will’s excited face more than the map itself. Now he knew where Will went at night at least. He wanted to tell Lewis right away so he wouldn’t have to worry, but it’d be difficult to explain that Will went to a fantasy city instead of dates with random guys. Mike had a faint idea that Lewis would actually instill that fact pretty quickly if someone told him. He couldn’t imagine Lewis getting overly upset about it either, he’d probably just flip his hair and ask them if he could come along next time.

”And this is mostly woodlands and mountains.” Will opened his hand, sprawled with his fingers over a large area, eyes glowing. He paused to look up at his friends as though he wanted to make sure they were as entertained by this as he was before continuing. ”Dwarfs live in underground tunnels, elves in the forests above. They don’t really get along but it works out fine as long as they stay with their own people.”

Mike’s ultimate penchant was watching Will get worked up. He listened carefully to every thing he had to say, as he pointed at the map and gestured with his hands. When the sunlight reflected in his eyes, they truly glimmered. It ached. Mike had to remind himself that this was a disastrous situation and not the right time to get lost in his feelings. He turned his eyes to Lucas and Eleven to watch their reactions instead. They were both smiling, also paying attention with great amusement. In the background, seen from over Lucas’ shoulder, he could see Nancy and Max standing by the window, talking with one another quietly.

”The dwarfs can get moody, but they’re really nice if you give them a chance,” Will told them. ”I’m sure Dustin would love to meet them and they would happily let Dustin stay with them if he wanted to. They’re shrewd, don’t like fussy things, don’t like to talk glib. Perhaps they’re this way because I specifically thought of Dustin when creating them, so I’m sure they’d be honored to meet him for real. But they’re not reincarnations of Dustin, not at all — ” Will shook his head ” — because Dustin’s a lot funnier. Dwarfs do have a sense of humor, I am sure, but I don’t understand it at all. Sometimes they just laugh and I don’t get what’s so funny.”

Will chuckled, swiped his hair out of his face. He was almost out of breath from speaking so much. He looked down at the floor, smiling shyly. He seemed embarrassed by his own rambling, but Mike wanted him to continue forever.

”What about the elves?” Mike nudged. ”What are they like?”

”The elves are actually trickier if you ask me!” Will put a finger in the air, whatever hesitation had washed right off. He almost resembled a professor (mr Clarke!) teaching a small group of students. His tone was very concise and formal, but his body language made him look like a bubbly child. The only thing that seemed to stop him from bouncing was the pain. ”They’ll act like they’re fond of you, offer you magical brews and be all friendly, but they’re cold when it all comes down to it. They don’t really care as much about you as they pretend to do. I wish they did though, because they’re really cool. I wish they would teach me some of their herbal remedies, but they always find an excuse not to tell me.”

”But if you created them, why didn’t you make them friendlier?” Eleven inquired.

”Sometimes my thought don’t translate perfectly so the outcome is a bit different from how I originally wanted it to be. And even if they do turn out just like I wanted them, as with the elves, they still develop freely once they come to life. There’s no way for me to plan everything ahead. I can’t create everything into the smallest details. When they come to life they’ll create themselves instead, and sometimes they just ignore my ideas. I guess they’re just like us in that sense. They’re their own independent beings. I don’t rule them, you know?”

”We don’t know a thing, Will, that’s for sure!” Lucas chortled.

”Yes, I understand that. I’m glad that you’re here anyway. I’ll tell you more eventually. Would you like something to eat? And something to wear maybe?” Will cocked his head at Lucas, very cautiously as if the movement would hurt, and Lucas just laughed and nodded.

”Is there any way to get your hands on something more practical than this?” Max asked, pulling at the heavy fabric of her dress. It was at least two sizes too big and it draped all the way down to the floor. It must had belonged to a very voluptuous woman, at least 5’11 feet tall.

”Yeah, we’ll find something, don’t worry,” Will assured her. ”Now let’s get something to eat. Hopefully Dustin and Steve will turn up soon enough or else we’ll have to find them.”

”Please. Clothes first? Food second?” Lucas begged. He opened the blanket wrap, showed his naked upper body, grey trunks and legs like a show. He cracked a forced smile, teeth gleaming, that soon turned into genuine laughter. He wrapped the blanket around him again, shook his head like a girl in a shampoo commercial. ”I’m a hottie, I know, I know, but I’d really appreciate some clothes before we go anywhere to eat. I can let you admire by body later, but not now, I’m so sorry.”

Will and Eleven laughed about it. Mike did not. He looked in a different direction and hurried away to the window, where Nancy still stood, mesmerized and smiling at the view.

”You’re not my type, sorry, man,” Will tapped with his hand on Lucas’ shoulder and guided the way to the drawer, where he let Lucas and Max dig around in search for something that fit.

Will told them that they could get better clothes later, that this was just temporarily. After Will promised that it was just for the evening, Lucas went ahead and picked a truly awful outfit for himself, consisting of a ruffled women’s blouse with puff sleeves and cuffs, to pair with a some yellow pants which looked like German lederhosen and a little hat with a feather which literally served no other purpose but aesthetic extravaganza. Max settled for something simple that would allow her to move easier.

”Ah, I look like a fine sir, if I may say so myself!” Lucas declared proudly, checking himself out in a mirror on the wall. He adjusted the hat, flexed his biceps. ”I don’t understand how I can not be your type, Will. You need to get your eyes checked, buddy.”

The second after he had said that, Lucas noticed that he wasn’t wearing his glasses. He patted with his fingers all over his face and on top of his head, then he looked on the floor around him to see if they had been knocked off his face, as they often did.

”Why can I see, Will?! For how long have they been missing?! When did I lose them?!”

Mike watched the ship on the lake while eavesdropping Lucas’ and Will’s ridiculous conversation. Will didn’t even know how Lucas’ sight could have restored itself, but he rambled about the potential that Will still remembered Lucas as someone who didn’t wear glasses, and hence he didn’t need them anymore. None of them made a lot of sense, they just chattered both at the same time with equal amounts of exhilaration and wild gestures. Every two seconds Will gasped sharply at the pain, and then he kept going. Max groaned, told them to shut up.

If Mike just tried to forget about where they were and how they came here, it felt just like normal for a moment. Dustin and Steve were still missing, but it was more of an aberration to have them all gathered in the same room these days so it didn’t feel too strange.

It felt good to ease up the mood. Mike could sense it already that they’d need it. He wondered if that was the reason why Lucas started joking around like that, that he sensed the same thing. Some turbulent discussions and surely a lot of emotions waited in the near future. This was messed up but it was the calm before the storm, Mike was sure that the worst was yet to come. It was really just a matter of time when. But for now, he soaked up in the lovely sound of his friends laughing and hearing Will’s voice amongst them.


	12. Chapter 12

Dressed and starving, they left Tinkerbell’s and the unbearable noise behind them. Will told them that it was a nice place to stay for a while, but the ground floor was chaotic. He rested on the second floor most of the day, but if nobody could bring him a meal upstairs he always preferred to go somewhere else.

”Those vikings, are they actually dwarfs?” Mike asked, peering over his shoulder as they left.

It was evening but it wasn’t cold and the darkness was soft and gentle. The windows in the massive timber building were lit up and looked like TV screens displaying action movies. People were yelling and dancing and fighting each other inside. The feeble scent of grilled food lingered in the air outdoors as well.

”I don’t know actually,” Will said, unbothered. ”I never intentionally created any vikings, but I suppose the dwarfs may have learned how to sail and thus they turned into some sort of vikings.”

Mike had stopped questioning everything. He couldn’t grasp whether he was walking around inside Will’s brain or how the hell of this could exists, but once he stopped thinking he could see that it was pretty amazing. Perhaps it didn’t even need to make sense, it could just be whatever it was. Regardless of whether it was a dream, reality, a third dimension or something entirely else, it was nice to walk around in the lukewarm evening. The lake was pretty, the trees were magnificent. Everything was great, really. Mike embraced it the best he could without ruining it with common sense.

They walked the same way as Mike had come from earlier, towards the path which slithered its way through the woods and all the way around the lake, but then Will led them to a smaller path which curved away from the main road, away from the lake. They didn’t speak much as the walked. Will greeted some fairies which fluttered by, introduced them to his friends, but that was all. Mike was astonished by Will’s ability to speak that foreign language but he didn’t ask Will which language it was or how he learned it. Will struggled enough with just putting one foot ahead of the other.

The path took them over a hill and curved its way back and fourth down into a deep valley and then up again at the other side. In the valley there were sheep grazing and a barn. At the other side there were windmills. Their panels rotating slowly and if it wasn’t for their unusually vast size, the view could had been a postcard from the Netherlands. Those windmills towered above the trees and the houses like titans. Mike watched them with great interest, so captivated that he didn’t notice how Will and the others had already started walking down the path. He hurried to catch up.

”Those windmills, Will, what are they — ”

”You’ll see,” Will replied cheekily.

They passed the village in the valley and continued towards the windmills. Walking up was a lot harder than walking downhill. Mike’s legs ached and he was out of breath by the time they reached the top. From this angle they looked even larger. Even when he titled his head as far back as he could, it wasn’t enough to see the top of the windmills. It was almost frightening. Lucas was probably used to the view of skyscrapers in NYC, but Hawkins sure didn’t have any. It was unbelievable how someone could build something like that, but then again… perhaps nobody actually built them, perhaps they just popped up there one day because Will wanted them to?

Will walked up the the first windmill and knocked on a door, which was actually normal-sized and way too small in comparison to the building itself. The door swung open, a woman beckoned for them to come in. Mike had never even imagined something like what he saw inside. His mouth hung open as he looked around, devouring all the impressions his brain would allow him to perceive.

It was like an entire village inside the windmill. Stairs and bridges ran in every direction, like a spider-web all the way up to the top of the building. There were countless of doors along the walls, at strange angles, in odd shapes. There were people walking everywhere, resembling an ant colony, but everyone spoke faintly, almost whispered and their steps made no sound against the wooden floors. It was silent like in a library.

At the ground floor there was just a throne-like chair on which an old woman sat, sleeping, and a bunch of doors. She and the woman who let them in were the only ones present. They, like the rest of the people idling above, were remarkably small, though with the same proportions as a normal human being. They were not tiny like the fairies, far from, but Mike estimated that most of them were below five feet tall, the adult men included. A few exception like themselves walked amongst them, appearing a lot taller than they actually were. Mike, with his six foot and one inch, felt like a giant.

”This way,” Will hissed, cocking his head towards one of the doors.

They entered a smaller staircase which spiraled both downwards, into the ground, and upwards. Whispers could be heard coming from down below. Will struggled his way up, holding on to the handrail like an old man. In addition to his injuries, the stairs seemed to teeter. Mike almost fell over because the stair jerked to the side without premonition. The steps were also uneven in terms of size and consistency. Eleven gasped in surprise when her foot suddenly slipped, as though the step had turned into jelly. Mike stretched his hands out to the sides, reaching both walls as the staircases were so narrow, trying to keep his balance.

”I feel like I’m in Wonderland,” Max whispered, enchanted. She tapped with her foot on the next step before shifting her weight to it. It appeared solid but slanted to the side. ”Or else I’m high.”

”Yes, it’s rather —” The footstep on which Will stood withdrew, making him fall to the step below. He winced, clenched his jaw.

”Are you okay?” Max put a hand on his shoulder, rubbed amiably.

Will nodded and kept going as if nothing had happened. Eleven and Max followed closely behind, whispering about something.

”Will, we could just go back to Tinkerbell’s. You don’t have to do this.” Mike said, stopping in his tracks. Nancy almost bumped into him from behind.

The windmill was fascinating, but it wasn’t worth it if they were going to hurt themselves first thing, just trying to climb some fucking stairs. Besides, what if Steve and Dustin had arrived at the pub? How would they know that the rest were climbing a windmill a twenty-minute walk away? From the outside it was impossible to tell what a lively society there was inside.

”Right, I’m fine with anything, really,” Lucas assisted, also stopping, throwing a glance behind him.

”We have to speak quietly out here, they don’t like noise. We can talk when we get there,” Will turned over his shoulder with a finger to his lips, ignoring their concern.

He kept walking, more determined now. Mike didn’t say anything more. He just exchanged a glance with Lucas, shrugged and followed. Will was the boss here. It was strange but also amusing to see him take the lead. Mike just hoped that he knew what he was doing and didn’t push himself too hard for their sake.

Will pushed a door open and slid in. The door closed behind Nancy, who came in last. They were probably midway up the windmill, with at least as many stairs left as they had walked. Mike didn’t understand the staircase system. They seemed very incoherent and inefficient. The intricate system seemed like an aesthetic feature more than a practical infrastructure to him.

”Ah, Will! Long time no see! I heard you were in town. I was just wondering when you’d drop by!” A woman, tiny but plump, dark skinned with the a wonderfully voluminous hairdo on her head, hurried over. She pulled Will into a hug before he could resist. She let go, startled. ”Oh, dear, what happened to you? Is it the monsters again? They’re bad these days, aren’t they? I heard from the dwarfs that they were having problems lately,” she frowned.

”Well, it’s —” Will began, but the woman had just laid her eyes on the rest of the bunch and listened no further. Even Eleven looked tall standing next to her. She eyed them up and down, nodding approvingly, dried her hands on a kitchen towel. Then she stretched her hand out towards each of them, introduced herself as Abebi.

”It’s a pleasure to meet you. Didn’t think I’d ever get to,” she said, smiling. She gestured towards her apartment with pride. ”Welcome! The food’s ready in a minute.”

Mike wondered how come she had made food for so many if she didn’t know in advance that she was going to have five full-sized visitors, but he didn’t ask about it. At this point all the view settings were getting tiring, his brain couldn’t process any more odd shapes and creatures. When a kid crawled out from beneath the bunkbed in the corner, he just impassively watched. He was too overwhelmed already to care about the fact that the kid was so tiny that he probably didn’t even reach Mike to his knees. ’Okay then’, was the only thing his brain produced.

They had come into what looked like a small studio apartment, a square shaped room with both a tiny kitchen, a bunkbed, a dining table and a desk. Some pans and pots rested on the stew. The door at the other side of the room was probably the bathroom, Mike assumed. The interior was more delicate than the robust shapes at Tinkerbell’s, made out of lighter materials and painted in a variety of colors. There was a cloth draped over the dining table which had magnificent, colorful embroideries all over. Wax candles burned all around and the room smelled delicious as the food oozed from the stove.

When Eleven, Lucas and Max sat down at the dining table, Mike thought it was alright for him to do the same thing. Nancy was the only one who greeted the kid, but the moment she stretched her hand out, he hurried back to the safety underneath the bed, out of sight and didn’t come back out again. Will helped Abebi set the table. She handed him seven plates and some silver cutlery.

”Is the tiny one going to eat with us tonight?” Will asked, eyebrows raised. He glanced towards the bed but the kid was still hiding, only his eyes stared back from the dark. Good thing the kid was cute and tiny, or else the sight would had been terrifying.

”No, he still eats leaves,” Abebi chortled benevolently, pouring the content from a frying pan into a bowl. ”But your friend is coming, isn’t he? That makes us seven, no?” she grinned, making Will roll his eyes.

He was stifling a coy smile, Mike saw it clearly. He couldn’t tell if it felt like getting stabbed or getting healed. He stared at the embroidery with incongruous intensity, forced himself to pay attention to the flowers and animals and the lettering which he could not read. He only looked up when Will placed a plate in front of him, covering the spot which he was focusing on.

”She makes those herself,” Will told, nodding at the table cloth. He put the other plates on the table. ”She’s a brilliant seamstress. Everybody knows her boutique. People travel far to buy her things. She could make you some proper clothes, if you’d like? Right, Abebi?” Will turned to her, already knowing the answer, it seemed. She nodded stoutly, put a bowl on the table.

”Of course. And you people are simple to sew for. It’s trickier when the costumers have animal parts or shift shapes, certainly.”

Again, Mike found himself just blank. He nodded, chuckled a little, but what she had just said went into one ear and directly out of the other. Shape shifting? Animal parts? Okay, then. Mike was just hungry and tired and he wondered if Dustin and Steve were okay. Since Will had told him that Holly was surely safe and well, he felt a bit easier at heart, but it still nagged him that he didn’t know for sure. He would get righteously disowned if his parents found out he was having dinner and chilling around while Holly was kidnapped and dying somewhere. He had to trust Will and he wished it had been easier to do so, but Will seemed almost too content with all these weird things which made Mike doubt whether he actually understood how serious this situation was.

They gathered around the table started helping themselves of the food. There were steamed vegetables, some sort of meatballs in a spicy sauce, grains and pickles. The meal was surprisingly normal actually. Mike was relived by that. He stuffed his mouth full and didn’t say much. Will and Abebi did most of the talking. Max took seconds before everyone had even plated their first round.

”Don’t you get any food where you come from?” Abebi laughed.

Will told them about how he had met Abebi. He was sad one day and wished that he had someone to talk to who would understand, and there she was. She wasn’t originally from the windmill, but her late husband was. She was average-sized when they first met, then she shrank when the windmill became her permanent home. The kid was twelve years old. He was born in the windmill and was the same size as most of the other kids who grew up there. He didn’t have a name but was commonly reared to as the tiny one and he spent most of his time under the bunkbed.

”He has a collection of bugs there,” Will explained. ”They’re his best friends. They talk to him all the time but we can’t hear it.”

Okay then. Mike just nodded mechanically. Okay then. Okay then. He asked Eleven to pass him the meatballs. Nancy was really polite and friendly, asking a bunch of questions and telling Abebi how fantastic the meal was. Mike was more astonished by Nancy’s ability to talk like a grown woman than the bugs ability to talk to the tiny one. He watched her converse Abebi like an old friend. Max and Eleven didn’t have the same venerable tone when they chatted with one another, and they certainly didn’t use the same vocabulary.

”You have a lovely sense of style, sir,” Abebi commented, pointing in Lucas’ direction with her fork.

It was impossible to tell whether she was joking or not. He just smiled and took the hat off, held it against his chest, nodded politely before putting it back on. The deep neckline of the blouse and the puff sleeves actually suited him, oddly enough. It was the mix of the items that made it ludicrous but nobody really seemed to care. Not even the sailing dwarfs raised an eyebrow when they passed through the venue on their way out.

”You know, Will is the most respected person around here,” Abebi told them, smiling proudly. Will poked at his food with the fork, blushing a little. This only seemed to encourage her. She put her hand flat on the table, leaned forward. ”Even the elves, the old wizards and the royalties respect him! I do think that the old wizards are a bit frumpy about the fact that such a youngster is as good as they are though. ’He has no experience’, they say. Pfffh. They’re hundreds of years, some of those magicians, and yet they haven’t figured it out. They’re just jealous because Will will be a more memorable wizard.”

”So, you’re a wizard for real now?” Max asked, eyebrows raised.

”I’m working on it,” Will shrugged nonchalantly. It was still apparent that it meant a lot to him. He sipped some water and yielded away from their inquisitive eyes.

”But hang on!” Mike remembered. ”Does that mean that I’m actually a paladin? And Lucas is a ranger? And Dustin is dwarf? And this is basically D&D?”

The memory of the reflection in the lake was suddenly vivid in his mind. The armor. The strength. Perhaps the vision wasn’t necessarily an insight of truth, but just a prank of some sort, a mind trick maybe. Right now, seated around this table, he was as lanky and useless as always and he still wore a farmer’s old shirt (now dry and less smelly, luckily). Where was the armor? An immense disappointed flooded him as he realized that he wasn’t the paladin his younger self had envisioned. It felt like he had let himself down by being so lame even in a world that was so boundless. If anything was possible here, why was he still just Mike Wheeler?

”I mean, you could be — ” Will stabbed a carrot and put it in his mouth, ” — but paladin is technically not a race, is it? A paladin is an honorable type of knight and most of them are born human. You have to earn the title first.”

Mike knew very well that he wasn’t strong or brave or anything-else enough to become a paladin. He didn’t deserve the position. He was quite the opposite of a paladin really, and that was probably why he was so drawn to the idea in the first place. As a child Mike had thought of himself as pretty cool — a nerd, yes — but still cool. He was confident but never cruel. He only wanted the best for everyone and he was brighter than most kids in his grade. The only ones with better grades were his best friends. He was full of ideas, dreams and ambitions, the sky was the limit. At the time it had felt like he was so full of potential, he had so much faith in his future self, assured that older-Mike was going to achieve something great. Adults often said the same thing. ’Your passion will take you far’, he was told by mr Clarke on the day of his middle school graduation.

But now, when truly analyzing his life and putting it under scrutiny, Mike knew that he had failed himself and everyone who had ever believed in his probabilities. The brilliant kid he once were had turned out to be so dull. He drank too much coffee, made out with strangers to forget someone else, passed his classes but didn’t endeavor anything in particular, stayed quiet in fear of speaking up, listened to grunge music occasionally but wasn’t edgy enough to be grunge for real and watched football on the TV with the boys without even caring — everything he had grown to be was so painfully average that he wanted to apologize to his younger self, travel back in time and just redo everything.

”I think you could become a paladin,” Eleven said. ”Because you’re very noble.”

”Me? Noble?” Mike choked.

”Yes.” She didn’t explaining it further.

Mike was about to ask her if she even knew what the word ’noble’ meant, but then someone opened the door and stumbled into the apartment, panting. It was the blond guy who had greeted Mike when he sat on the haystack, the one who told him where to find Will. His cheeks were flushed red and he was out of breath as if he had run up the stairs.

”Sorry!” he gasped. ”It took a bit longer than I thought.”

Will laughed, turned over the back of his seat. Nancy, Eleven, Max and Lucas seemed confused by this encounter, and Mike was too in a way, but he had expected to meet him some time again in the future. He didn’t recall exactly what he had said since the circumstances were a bit chaotic, but Mike had a faint memory of him saying ’see you later’ or something along those lines. Abebi pushed her chair back, got up and gave him a tight hug, arms wrapped around his waist. He wasn’t particularly tall either but he still towered above her in a rather adorable way.

”You’re always welcome here, you know that,” Abebi said and patted him on the back as he walked over to the dining table. He hugged Will from behind first, then he raised a hand and nodded towards the others before taking a seat next to Max on the shorter end of the table.

”It’s lovely to see you all,” he said with the same raspy voice as previously, looking at each one of them. He smiled solemnly. Will passed him the bowl with vegetables and pushed the meatballs towards him. He started placing the food on his plate while everyone watched shamelessly.

”Are you Charlie Evenbrook?” Eleven blurted.

Almost as if she had said something forbidden, something that oughted not to be talked about, everyone flinched. Max kicked her under the table, not as subtile as she probably intended, which made it even more awkward. Mike pretended to not even be there anymore. He found a new patch of the embroidered cloth to investigate excessively instead.

”Yes, that’s me,” he replied, unbothered, wiping some sauce from the corner of his mouth.

Will looked at the others with a hilarious facial expression which simply couldn’t be explained with words. Then he shook his head in disbelief. Mike now understood why Max had kicked Eleven. It would had been so much smoother to just let the poor man introduce himself and never let Will know just how much they had rummaged his personal items while he was gone. On the other hand, what did he expect? That they wouldn’t look for him?

”How did you know that?” Will asked.

The tiny one had crawled out from beneath the bed, making everyone shift their attention. He ran up to Charlie, a finger in the air on which a bright red bug creeped. He jumped from one foot to the other in excitement, smiling brightly. Lucas and Nancy couldn’t even see him from their side of the table since the tiny one wasn’t tall enough to even peep up over the edge of the table.

”What a nice bug!” Charlie exclaimed. ”May I hold it?”

But then the tiny one hurried back beneath the bunkbed again and vanished out of sight as though he had never been there. Abebi, Charlie and Will didn’t seem to think this behavior was odd at all. Instead they asked Charlie how his siblings were doing and he told them that everything was like usual.

Mike wondered where the Northon Harbor was located on the map. He didn’t want to ask. It was eerie enough to finally have a face to associate with that damn name which they had obsessed with lately. To see him sit with them, speaking amiably, looking like a perfectly mundane, normal guy was almost unbelievable. Mike had expected something more conspicuous after all their struggles, but all their past assumptions and theories were now spoiled by having reality display itself right in front of them.

”Charlie here is sort of my partner in crime,” Will told them. ”He helps me with a little bit and a little bit of that. But first and foremost he’s a good friend out mine.”

He looked at Charlie, who just smiled and nodded. There was an undeniable tension lingering in the air. Did they seriously thing the rest wouldn’t notice? That they were being subtile? They were no more subtile than the couples sticking their tongues down each other’s throats in the high school hallways. Mike decided that the embroidery was indeed his best pal around this table. He didn’t want to be there anymore, it made his skin crawl to stay put and collected like this.

”My family owns a bookstore,” Charlie said in between the bites. ”It’s not too big but it’s quite nice, I think. Will told me you guys like to read, is that so? You should come by sometime if you ever find yourself near the Northon Harbor.”

”Is it far?” Lucas asked.

”It’s located in what we know as Maine,” Will inflicted when Charlie’s directions made no sense to the rest of them.

They proceeded to everyone about how Will crashed in through the roof of the bookstore one day, having created a gate which was still a bit uncertain. They met by sheer coincidence and remained friends ever since. Will wasn’t even aware that there was already a community in Maine, even less that there was an entire harbor. Charlie’s family must had come around some time when Will had a daydream about an old bookstore and oaks on top of hills and the enchanting smell of old paper, which was a daydream he had had for years so nobody could really tell exactly when it became real.

Will laughed and suddenly seemed relieved from the pain. He never once referred to Charlie as anything else but his name, partner in crime or friend, but it was awfully apparent what was going on between the two.

Mike wished he had felt angry and jealous by this, but he just felt devastated and sad. How could this Charlie guy — who wasn’t even fucking real — come along and make Will his like this? Well, it was sort of obvious since Charlie was pretty, had a likable charm, soft-looking hair and friendly manners. There was nothing to dislike about him. His lack of overt flaws felt like a personal attack. Mike wondered if he was secretly mixed with some elven genes, he did have some of that mesmerizing grace, but at the same time he was so earthly. If Charlie had lived in the American 1990’s, attending college or being a singer in a boyband, girls would swoon after him like a moths to a lamp, and Mike would had been fine with it, but why did Will love him so much? It hurt.

And the key was that Mike wasn’t that attractive. He was just average. Too shy to be cool, not shy enough to be mysterious and quirky. He was lanky and shapeless and his hair was all over the place and his nose was a little crooked and his eyes just dark brown. Actually, when looking closer, Charlie also had dark brown eyes. Why did they look so much nicer in his face though? Was it because of the contrasting blond hair?

***

After they had finished their meal they left Abebi and the tiny one and headed back outside. Charlie trudged along with them as though he was already a natural part of the group. He had his hands in his pockets and skipped playfully, balancing on one foot and then the other, whistling a cheerful melody.

Mike wished he wasn’t so nice, he desperately searched for at least something that could justify some proper wrath, but was always left with nothing but his own, aching sadness. The fact that Will didn’t address it, pretended that they were just friends although they were clearly more than that, only made it worse. And despite that Mike had anticipated this, had plenty of time to instill the idea of Will being with someone else, he was by no means prepared to actually face it.

”We should probably go back to Tinkerbell’s. Dustin and Steve may be there already,” Will said, flicking a firefly away from his face.

The firefly was stubborn and soon Charlie helped him chase it away, laughing. Eleven also got a firefly buzzing around in her face. Lucas and Nancy helped her, but then the fly started chasing Nancy instead. Max approached the problem differently by allowing the flies to sit on her hair, on her shoulder, even on her face. She scrunched her nose and giggled, but didn’t waver it away. Mike couldn’t find the glowing lights amusing. They only made the night more romantic and he wasn’t included in the tooth rotting cutesy.

Was this karma? Was this Will’s way of forcing Mike to see how ridiculous it was that the two of them pretended to be ’just friends’ for so long when they were actually in love? Mike knew that they were young and foolish at the time, but teenage love was often the purest type of love since the young had not yet been hurt and thick-skinned, they just opened their hearts without any boundaries.

But Mike and Will simply couldn’t be, it wasn’t possible at the time. Their feelings knew no boundaries, but Hawkins sure had some ideas regarding which type of love was acceptable and not. It wasn’t Mike’s fault for being scared, and it wasn’t Will’s either. The circumstances made it impossible for any of them to speak, but it didn’t mean that the glances and casual touches weren’t true gestures of affection. Couldn’t Will understand see how much they meant?

They walked back to Tinkerbell’s at a slow, sedate pace. Will still limped a little but he seemed to be doing better already. The fireflies refused to leave Max so they rode along all the way back to the cobblestone square, where they heard the noise from the pub and flew back to the valley in a rush. A girl scrubbed the deck of one of the ships moored near the shore. She sang a lullaby as she swept with a mop across the planks until he spotted them. A boy the same age loitered nearby with his mop untouched next to him and a fun gadget which he tried to figure out in his hands instead.

”Will!” the girl cheered, waving. She said something more in a language Mike didn’t understand, but whatever she said it made Will put his hands together gratefully and walk faster towards Tinkerbell’s.

When they stepped inside the venue, Dustin sat in the center of the crowd, drinking out a goblet, drunken flush in his face, laughing. It almost seemed like he had always been there. Despite being smaller and neater than the rest of his company, he fit right in. He could easily had passed for a native, a young pupil or someone’s son. He had found clothes that fit and he had dried mud on his face. Mike caught Lucas’ eyes for a moment and they both chortled, turning their face back to Dustin, who in that moment clonked his goblet against one of the dwarf’s.

”What a savage!” Lucas exclaimed, leaning closer to Mike’s ear.

”He loves this, just look at him!” Mike hissed back.

Will specifically had to squeeze his way forward, in between the tables and guests, to get his attention. He tapped on Dustin’s shoulder, making him turn around in surprise. For a split second he just stared and then he threw himself around Will’s neck, spilling the content in the goblet everywhere and making Will’s face wrench in pain. Will patted him on the back and took a step back. The dwarfs wanted to shake Will’s hand, every single one of them, and Will nodded politely as they did.

”This will take a while,” Charlie noted, flicking a blond strand out of his face.

”I hope Steve is somewhere around here as well,” Nancy said, looking around her. A waiter with a massive plate of meat and potatoes swept by. Nancy pressed herself against the wall to get out of the way. When the waiter was gone, she continued, ”He has a talent for getting by, but he’s a bit of a moron so I hope he doesn’t get in trouble. He’s not a brilliant street fighter exactly. I think he is the one out of us who’s at the biggest risk of getting hurt here to be honest.”

”But everyone likes Steve!” Eleven objected. ”He’s probably somewhere around here, lost for sure, but not hurt. He has probably made friends already.”

It took a while, but at last Will came back to them with Dustin under his arm. Dustin laughed happily and his steps looked a bit unstable. Aside from being dirty he looked unharmed and fine.

”Hey, guys!” he greeted and hugged everyone as he normally would, not at all with the same heartfelt relief as when Mike saw his friends and sister earlier.

Mike could smell the braggot on his breath. One part of Mike was annoyed by how Dustin had gotten himself wasted first thing without taking into consideration that his braincells could be useful in a foreign dimension, but he couldn’t be mad because Dustin was okay and they were finally reunited.

”How are you, Dustybun?” Max teased.

”You won’t believe what I’ve been through today!” Dustin brayed, his hand slapped on his cheek, shaking his head. ”It’s been a crazy, crazy day, you guys! Where have you been? I was looking for you for so long and then this nice fellow with the beard — ” Dustin pointed toward the venue, where literally half of the guests had beards, ” — brought me here and gave me food!”

”And some drinks, yeah?”

”Yes, a few, I believe,” Dustin nodded thoughtfully. ”I have no idea where I am. But I didn’t know that even before I drank. Does anyone know where we are?”

”It’s a long story,” Will said, patting him on the shoulder. ”Now, have you seen Steve?”

”Steve? No. I don’t think so.”

They struggled their way upstairs, then they split up to get some sleep. Mike was running solely on adrenaline. Lucas, Dustin and himself shared the room on the left side while Eleven, Nancy and Max shared the room next door and Will stayed in the room which they had been in previously. 

There were three separate beds in the room lined up against the wall on the right side. Mike fell flat on his face onto the mattress, leaving Lucas to deal with Dustin. He heard Charlie saying goodnight, the door to the other room close, followed by creaking footsteps going downstairs until they vanished in the noise. Knowing that Charlie wasn’t spending the night with them brought Mike some peace, and he fell asleep before he could even feel guilty about the vicious jealousy which had already started to feel like a permanent part of him.

***

The sun beamed in through the window and hit Mike in the face the next morning. For a moment he thought he was still in the basement at home, or in his dorm in Bloomington. It took a while before it dawned that the previous day actually happened and that he was in a different dimension. 

He struggled out of the bedsheets and hurried to the window. Indeed, it was the same surreal view as yesterday. The ships were still moored on the lake and the cobblestone square was already busy with market stands and early-bird costumers. It was more quiet than yesterday. The venue downstairs was calm, no drunken yelling, fists slamming on the tables, cheering, singing or dancing. It had a torpid in that way which made it feel like time didn’t exist and the whole world was resting, a pause which was comforting and well needed.

Lucas and Dustin were still asleep beside him. Lucas’ vibrant outfit lay on the floor next to his bed. His arm hung over the edge and his duvet was scrunched into a pile near his feet. Dustin wore the same clothes as he had worn yesterday, some kind of shirt with a belt at the waist and cargo pants.

Mike could hear voices from the door at the other side of the parlor. Max and Eleven were giggling about something and Will’s voice blended in among them every now and then, hoarse and sleepy. Right now everything was so still and peaceful that it could almost fool one to think that everything was in order.

This morning wasn’t too different from the mornings they had shared so far. Mike envisioned how they’d meet up in the dining hall and have breakfast together, just like at the hotel. The routine had formed very fast but it felt natural to stick to it, as though they had always done it that way.

Mike had to take a couple of deep breaths. He put a hand on the window frame and leaned in closer. This world was immense and there were so many things to explore and see, but they came here for a reason. They came to bring Will and Holly back. 

Their parents were crawling out of their skin of worry and despair. Mrs Byers feared that Will was in the Upside Down getting devoured by monsters, that’s what she had thought perpetually since the moment he vanished. They had to let her know that Will was okay. They had to return to the real world, to the United States, to Hawkins.

This place was incredible, but it wasn’t right. Mike had only been there for a day but he could already feel the constant uncertainty of not knowing what was real and what was dissimulation impinge on his sense of perception and his personality. He was losing himself in the surreal and to stay long enough to develop a new sense of self was not the solution, because one day he’d have to return to the mundane dimension and then he’d be equally lost.

Lucas groaned in his sleep and rolled over. The watch on the wall said it was seven o’clock. At least time did exist here, Mike thought. The room they stayed it looked much like Will’s room, but smaller. There was no table and only one chair by the desk, but there were bookshelves, maroon curtains and a drawer. There was also a wooden box full of newspapers in the corner.

Mike walked over, peered into the box and realized that most publications were in various languages he, yet again, didn’t understand. But when he rummaged through the content, he finally found a couple of newspapers which were written in English. He picked it up, tried to smoothen out the crinkles and placed in on top of the desk. The headlines were written in bolder letters, just like usual, but the typing looked more like a cursive handwriting. It was neat and easy to read, with illustrations spacing the text out.

”Mike…?” Dustin murmured.

”Uh-huh.”

Mike didn’t turn his face away from the newspapers. He didn’t understand the date stamp, but it seemed to be pretty recently printed. The hue of the paper had a yellow undertone and it smelled old, but something about it, perhaps it was the condition, made him think that it was new.

”Where are we…?” Dustin now sat up. He rubbed his eyes, looked around him in confusion. His face was a little swollen and his hair tousled, but he had sobered up. He still had the duvet wrapped around his lower body, half shrugged off.

”That’s a good question.”

”Come on, tell me, don’t be like that,” Dustin whined.

”I don’t know either, Dustin. This is like a third dimension or something but it’s really just Will’s imagination but it’s also Hawkins but it’s not. I literally have no idea!” Mike replied over his shoulder. He sighed.

”Fucking hell…

Dustin slumped back on the mattress like a dead weight. He closed his eyes again and rolled away from the daylight. It only took a moment before Mike heard him snoring quietly again. Lucas was still knocked out. Mike heard the others walking down the stairs but he didn’t feel like following just yet. Right now he just wanted the morning to remain like this until he had recharged his batteries enough to take on the world outside.

On the front page of the newspapers there was a picture of a jungle. Tall trees with tendrils draping randomly, large flowers and leaves in incredible shapes filled out the square box at the center of the papers. In the middle of the jungle view there was a hole from which reek oozed out, drawn as curlicues. The headline read ’New attack in southern gnome town’. When Mike leaned closer he saw some tiny gnome creatures in the illustration as well. They had concerned looks on their faces and the cutest spears in their hands, pointed towards the hole.

Mike flipped the page. There was a report about the new community by the lake, which Mike assumed was this particular town, which mentioned that the gate was still not operative. He frowned. He knew that much already. Another paragraph mentioned a prosperous trade route between two cities, including fabric, tools, food and knowledge. A witch had foreseen that the route was going to fail, but the citizen didn’t believe her. Mike found the whole thing pretty amusing. This was truly a world of its own and despite the otherworldly creatures and the presence of magic, it really didn’t seem that different from the world he came from. He only briefly read the articles, kept flipping through the pages until he found the article about the gnomes.

He had to peer to decipher the text and traced each word with his finger to not lose the thread. He uncovered that this was just one out of a streak of attacks and it wasn’t the worst so far. Some mountain chain had gotten badly damaged by an attack earlier this month. The article mentioned monsters and ’dark beings’ several times, which seemed to be the main concern with all of this as they were the ones who conducted the attacks.

Mike didn’t figure it out what that was supposed to mean, but since he was getting hungry he decided to join the others downstairs. He left the newspapers on the desk, tried to flatten his hair to his head and headed down. Lucas and Dustin were still asleep when he left them.

”Good morning,” he said, coming into the restaurant venue.

It was almost empty. The dwarfs were gone and they had left no traces behind. Perhaps the place was cleaned by magic? A man with the beak-nose and the pipe sat in a corner drinking soup with a straw up his nostril. Two human people sat near the exit while Will, Eleven and Max were seated closer to the window. They looked up when he came in.

The table was cluttered with various types of food. Mike took a seat at the opposite side from Will and Max. Everyone wore the same clothes as before. Will seemed a bit more energetic, his face less sickly.

”Just help yourself,” Will said, gesturing across the table. He was eating porridge out of a bowl with some unfamiliar berries on top, drinking what looked like normal coffee.

”Where can I get some of that?” Mike asked, only now realizing how badly he wanted some.

Will laughed and pointed towards a large, rustic kettle which hung above a fire further down the venue. He never even noticed the fire yesterday, it somehow slipped under his radar in the crowd and commotion. He hurried over and scooped himself as much as the cup allowed him to carry, sipping as he walked in order to not spill any. It was indeed normal coffee. He welcomed the bitter taste on his tongue like an old friend before realizing that he was getting incongruously sentimental.

”How’s Dustin?” Eleven asked.

”He’s okay. Just tired, I think,” Mike said. ”Where’s Nancy?”

”Also tired.”

”Understandable.” Mike placed a little bit of everything he could identify what it was on a plate and dug in.

Eggs, sausages and bread were at least the same as home. The suspicious goo in the pan didn’t look too alluring. He ate in silence for a while until he remembered the article about the gnomes. Not wanting to overwhelm Will, Mike tried to ask the question as casually as possible:

”Will, the so called ’dark beings’, are they from the Upside Down? I found some newspapers upstairs. Seems like they’ve been bothering you for a while, those monsters.”

Once the words were out he regretted phrasing it like that. His unbothered, casual body language didn’t change the fact that he had just brought up something serious. He shoved some eggs into his mouth and made sure to comment on how good they were, as if that would undo his mistake. Mike was an unsmooth moron a lot of the time, but when Will watched him so closely it made him painfully self-aware. He rarely felt as vulnerable, knowing that Will’s opinion mattered so much.

”Oh,” was the only thing Will said at first, so impassively that it was almost comical. He spread some jam onto a slice of bread, took a bite. ”Yes, they’re from the Upside Down. They’ve been trying to occupy this dimension for a while now. My theory is that they’re jealous.”

Mike was so underwhelmed he didn’t even know what to do with himself next. He had prepared himself for a heated reaction, tension or just whatever, but it never came. Instead he stumbled like a fool who had accidentally overestimated the size of each step in a staircase and got it all wrong.

”So this is not the Upside Down?” Eleven inquired, tapping on the table with her fingers. There was a wonderful hopefulness in his eyes. When Will frowned as if offended by the mere idea, shaking his head. Then she cracked up in a relieved smile and said, ”That’s great. I was afraid that this was the Upside Down, but something like a nice part of it, if such a thing exists, I don’t know. I never had the chance to really explore it. I suppose there could had been a nice part of the Upside Down too, just like there’s good and bad parts in the human world.”

”Well, as far as I know all the dimensions are connected. That’s why we can pass from one dimension to the other through gates. They’re intertwined — ” Will gestured with his hands ” — but they are not the same. There seem to be a vacuum in between them that keeps them apart. The vacuum may seem endless, but it’s actually not. It’s not impossible to pierce through the void and into a different dimension. It just takes a brutal amount of force.”

”Or a password, apparently.”

”Yes, or a password. But it seems like the password-thing doesn’t really work,” Will muttered. ”Us human beings can’t force our way through, but there are creatures that are way more powerful than we are. The Mind-flayer, for instance. The Mind-flayer could force himself into this dimension if he wanted to, for sure.”

”But the Mind-flayer is dead,” Eleven said curtly.

”I’d like to think that too, but so we thought the first time we killed him and then he made a grand come-back so I don’t take it for granted this time.”

Will kept eating his breakfast as though nothing was wrong but the temperature in his eyes had dropped to freezing. His eyes were completely devoid of its usual kindness and warmth. Mike had never seen such a thing in Will’s face. It made him nervous so he didn’t ask any further questions about the attacks. He made a mental note to ask someone else instead. It was apparently vital news so there had to be someone else who could answer his questions.

Lucas and Dustin came downstairs a while later. Max seized this opportunity to tease him about yesterday’s slip while Dustin pretended to not even know what she was talking it. This eased Will up again. The breakfast proceeded like nicely. Mike managed to restore his confidence enough to enjoy it. For a while they discussed normal things like school and TV-shows, just like they would have done in Mike’s basement, but in this setting those topics felt unfamiliar and odd.

Nancy joined them when everyone were already done, excusing herself for sleeping so much. She looked well rested and more put-together than last night. Someone must have helped her to clean those scratches she had gotten on the way to Tinkerbell’s, they already looked better. She took a seat and Will assured her that they were not in a hurry.

”I’ll take you to the children’s troop when we’re done here,” Will announced like a proud sightseeing guide.

Mike didn’t tell him that they were in fact very much in a hurry and they had to get out here as soon as possible. He actually had no idea how he was supposed to tell Will this. He didn’t want to tell Will this. How could he, after hearing the way Will spoke of the windmill village, the people, the fairies, the meadows, the magic and the nature as though it meant the entire world to him? Of course it meant the world to him — he had created the world and filled it with everything that meant something to him, it only made sense.

Mike had focused so much on the task of saving Will, finding him, bringing him back, keep him safe, that he hadn’t prepared himself to face the reality that perhaps Will didn’t want to return, that he had found place which was better, people who could make him happier. Was it heroic to save someone who didn’t want to be saved? Or did that only make Mike the antagonist in this?

The fear of losing Will to something much better than himself and what he had to offer was as cruel as the fear of losing Will to something horrid. Of course it was better in the sense that Will wasn’t dragged into the Upside Down to die, but now Mike was afflicted by the realization that his own insufficiency was the reason why Will was slipping away. It was within his control, and yet it wasn’t since he was already trying his best and he was still not enough.

And half-way to the children’s troop’s base camp Charlie Evenbrook showed up again — pretty and charming as always — and Mike spent the rest of the way a couple of feet behind, watching Will and Charlie walking side by side in front of him, their shoulders almost brushing against one another and their backs resembling two walls that kept him shut behind. Mike just wanted to run away. Would anyone even notice if he did?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until I started writing this a while ago, I thought I was over fantasy.
> 
> I used to love it when I was younger but then I just stopped picking up those fantasy novels, I stopped roleplaying and writing fairytales. I guess people thought it was uncool and I didn't want to be a weirdo and eventually I even convinced myself that the things I once loved were actually just silly and stupid all along - and yet I was still a loser so that didn't help a lot but at least I tried. School, eh?
> 
> Honestly I felt a bit awkward when I first started including those fantasy themes in this, but as I kept writing I guess I started to enjoy it again. It's sort of freeing to not care if something is realistic all the time and to let things be weird and unexplained. And again, even the real world can't always be explained. I suppose nothing is as ignorant as the belief that one already knows everything and I think it's important to remember that the world we live in is fueled by ideas. It all starts with thoughts. So, if everyone would tame their imagination, we'd get nowhere from here and none of the things we see and know would exist either.
> 
> There is no real world without some fantasy. (Note: In my language the word for imagination and fantasy is the same)
> 
> What do I even want to say with this note? Idk folks, I'm just sharing my thoughts because I hope that you, no matter what age you are, can read this and hopefully enjoy it without feeling like it's silly. That's the bottom line.


	13. Chapter 13

The children’s troop was like a scout ensemble consisting of orphan kids and kids whose parents neglected them or never even existed. Mike expected to see ailing, lonely children clad in trashed curtains sitting on a street, but it wasn’t what he was met by when they stumbled into the camp.

There was a massive makeshift fort in the woods. Although it was daytime they had a large bonfire in the center. A flag with a leaf symbol billowed in the wind, attached on top of the fort. Clothes made out of the local leaves hung on a laundry line between two trees. Teddybears and candy lay around everywhere.

”This reminds me of the lost boys! From Peter Pan!” Nancy exclaimed, enchanted. ”But where are the kids?”

”The kids are so many, they’re like a miniature army, but it was impossible to tell how many they are exactly as they can’t be seen. The camp always looks empty like this,” Charlie told her.

The foliage rattled suspiciously but the children could indeed not be seen. A pair of pants slipped off the laundry line and floated into the fortress. Some giggling could be heard. The sound of footsteps trudging through the bushes came closer. Mike saw how a stick snapped in half on the ground, then the steps stopped right in front of them.

”Hey!”

”Oh shit!” Mike floundered backwards in surprise. ”Holly? Is that you?”

It was Holly, he knew it already, but the explosion of sound came out of the thin air and Holly was nowhere to be seen. Nancy clutched her chest, let out a sigh of relief. With flickering, frantic eyes, she stretched her arms out, grasped the air with her hands, but there was nothing there. As she struggled, the giggles in the bushed intensified, some of them even shrieked of laughter. Charlie glared in their direction, put his finger to his lips to shush them.

Nobody paid attention to Will, who was trying to explain the whole phenomenon.

”Holly? I can’t see you! Holly?” Nancy called, turning around on the spot.

”Nancy, listen!” Will pleaded, now impatiently. She clammed up immediately. ”The kids turn transparent when adults come too close to their camp. We have to leave this place in order to see them. Holly, will you follow us for a moment?” Will asked calmly, looking at the empty air in front of them as though he could see her clearly.

”Okay!” Holly replied.

They walked back the same way as they had come. Mike heard Holly walking next to him but he didn’t see her nor feel her when he stretched his hand out in her direction. They stopped when they were out of the bushes, in the bright sun near the lake. Everyone had gathered in a wobbly circle and were simmering with anticipation and wonder, staring at the empty air in the middle. Charlie sat down on the cliffs, picked a straw and started chewing at the end, watching them passively.

”Do you feel safe, Holly?” Will asked. Mike immediately got the impression that Will intentionally muffled the words as if he didn’t actually want to say them at all. His whole body language was a bit taut and evasive.

”Yes!” she replied. ”Of course! Why wouldn’t —”

And suddenly she was visible. She popped up out of nowhere right next to Max, who got so surprised she skipped to the side, almost falling over. Dustin laughed, helped her gain her balance back. Nancy had pulled Holly into a hug the very next second. Holly’s arms were tightly wrapped around her and she was smiling into Nancy’s chest. Mike wrapped his arms sort of awkwardly around the two of them.

”Holly, do you know how worried mom and dad have been!?” Nancy bellowed, holding Holly by the shoulder, trying to catch her eyes. ”They’ve been super, super worried! Dad has cried so much! Mom had to stay with Nana because she was so sad!”

Mike was astonished by how much she resembled an actual mother. He wasn’t as distressed, he was just happy that she was found healthy and well. In fact, Holly seemed to be doing great. She wore a costume made out of leaves, with a little hat on top, her hair cut short to the ears and she had a massive chocolate bar hanging from the belt at her waist. There was nothing about her that indicated regret or worry. If anything, she was actually the most confident one in the group.

”Did dad cry?!” Holly’s pale eyebrows shot as far up as they could. Nancy nodded gravely. This thought appeared to amuse Holly so much she almost cracked up in laughter. ”How weird! I have never seen him cry before.”

”How did you get here, if I may ask, Holly?” Will seemed seriously bemused, itching his scalp. He had the other hand at his hip. He looked at Holly as though he couldn’t even believe that she was there, as if she — a normal twelve-year old girl — was the biggest mystery around here.

”I followed the fawn,” she shrugged. She broke off a piece of chocolate and put it in her mouth. She seemed to cool about this that she felt like a native. She broke off another piece and gave it to Nancy. ”Sorry if you worried.”

”And the fawn opened the gate for you?” Will continued with the same disbelieving tone.

”Uh-huh,” she nodded. ”Or actually, I don’t know exactly what what the fawn did. I never saw it open any door, but I guess there was a door of some sort in the lake and I followed it inside. It was glowing!” Holly gestured with her hands, eyes wide.

”Okay then,” Will said but it was was written all over his face that this was very unsettling news. He threw a glance towards Charlie, who just shrugged and laughed in response.

”What have you been up to since coming here?” Mike asked Holly.

He found the whole thing hilarious now that she was found and seemed well. She was so unbothered by how nothing made sense. She had adapted to this new world seamlessly, leaving everything she knew behind. She was like a new kid, but at the same time she was in every way still Holly. Seeing how moldable she was sparked nostalgia in him. Kids were so open towards everything coming their way. Mike questioned his own petulant approach. 

”Well — ” Holly let the chocolate melt on her tongue, ” — The fawn ran away when we came here. It was a bit scary to be alone. But then a group of kids came to me and they gave me clothes and food and said that I could be a part of their troop if I wanted to. And then they taught me songs and how to climb trees and we went swimming and we eat candy all day. It’s really nice here.”

”How did you learn how to become invisible?” Max asked, astonished.

”It just sort of happened.”

”Will, how come the — ”

”Now, let’s go find Steve, shall we?” Will suggested, clapping his hands together. Charlie got back on his feet, brushed his pants off. He selected a new straw to take along with him. When he passed Will, Will leaned in closer and hissed, ”We have to fix that gate as soon as possible, alright? We can’t have things coming and going as they like.”

Dustin, Eleven, Max and Lucas all seemed keen on getting going. They followed Charlie and started walking back to the road. Mike was about to join them when Holly whined:

”But I want to go back to the troop!”

”Then go. We’ll pick you up later, alright? We have to find Steve first,” Mike assured, smiling over his shoulder.

He received a doubtful glance from Nancy. Without really thinking, he went back and pulled Holly closer and hugged her. Her hat almost fell off which made her take a step away, disgruntled. She readjusted the hat earnestly like a solider. Mike chuckled. Oh, how he had daydreamed about being a part of a magical forest tribe. Seeing Holly living it warmed his heart.

”Make sure to have fun, okay?” he told her.

”Right,” Nancy agreed. There was a flinch of worry in her eyes, but she meant it. She was smiling now too. ”Have fun as much as you can.”

”Of course!” Holly replied without a second of thought. ”And if Steve is the guy with the ugly hair then he’s at the castle, just so you know. He got kidnapped by a house elf, I think.”

”Okay. Thank you for telling us, Holly,” Mike said.

Holly did a quick salute and before running back the way they had come from as fast as her legs would carry her, singing loudly and out of tune, until she vanished midair before she had ran out of sight. Mike kept looking in the direction, but she had truly vanished. He was very amused by it, but he had to further convince Nancy that playing with the other kids was the best thing for Holly to do, she was going to have more fun there and thus she wouldn’t be mischievous as she would probably be if they forced here to come along and spend all day with adults. And if the troop had taken well care of her so far. Nancy agreed and muttered something about how she was becoming her own mom.

”Well, at least we know where Steve is now,” Will noted. ”I suppose he’s the guy with the ugly hair, who else would it be?”

He put a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, peering in the direction of the castle. Some towers and turrets raised above the tree tops. The castle was by far the most substantial building from this point of view, and it was probably bigger than the windmills as well, that loomed in the distance.

”How do we get there?” Lucas asked.

”I guess we’ll have to walk,” Will shrugged. ”There’s no subway around here.”

”Let’s not tell Steve Holly referred to him as the guy with ugly hair, alright? It’ll break his heart,” Dustin chuckled and everyone agreed.

With Will leading the way, they started walking along the road towards the castle. Rusty dust swirled around their feet with each step. Mike wished that they could have cooled down in the lake before going. There were no trees offering any shadow for a good bit ahead. The sun was hotter now than it was when they left Tinderbell’s in the morning.

Charlie tried to catch someone’s attention, but struggled as everyone was caught up in a discussion about Holly and Steve. In the end it was actually Mike who accidentally made eye-contact with him while trying to take in the landscape around them.

”Sorry, I don’t really get who this Steve is. Who is he?” he asked rather nervously.

He had spitted the straw out and looked at Mike with those dark brown eyes which were a lot prettier in his face than in Mike’s. He had exceptionally long eyelashes too, the type that girls would be jealous of. But despite being annoyingly flawless, Mike couldn’t be mad at him when he looked so vulnerable and pleading. Right now he was the one left out. Mike caved in. It honestly didn’t take much. He wasn’t sure if that was because he wasn’t strong enough to resist aiding his enemy, or if it was because he was a decent person.

”He’s a friend,” Mike said. ”He was originally my sister’s boyfriend but he was sort of a jerk. Then things happened and he changed and we got a new start. He’s great. We joke about that he was like a babysitter to us when we were younger. And he’s known for his hair. He thinks it looks amazing, but most people honestly think it looks ridiculous. It’s a matter of taste, I suppose.”

”Oh, alright, I get it. Thanks.” Charlie smiled and Mike smiled back before he could stop himself.

Did the two make peace in that moment? Mike wasn’t sure. For now they walked together as one big group and everyone seemed to have a purpose in their own way. The two of them could apparently co-exist like this, now that Will walked further ahead with Dustin and Max, not paying attention to either one of them.

It was ludicrous how a person who was made up by someone’s imagination could be such a threat, but perhaps that was also why he was so great — Will wanted someone who was handsome, charming, polite, dreamy, bookish and friendly — so here he was, Charlie Evenbrook. A literal fantasy come to life.

But Mike had to admit that he enjoyed Charlie’s company as well. He had some entertaining stories to tell and he never interrupted Mike when he told him anything in return, he just listened attentively and asked further questions. He was the good guy who saved the day, giving Mike no reason to hate him and yet… his presence felt like getting a blister from your favorite pair of shoes. You still like them, but they’re causing you pain, but taking them off wouldn’t be any better because then you’d walk around barefoot and be in need of shoes or else your feet would get hurt by something else.

Mike wondered if this was how Will felt about Eleven back in the days.

***

The castle was very much like Mike had envisioned it. Grand halls and chambers, chandeliers, paintings on the walls, magnificent details everywhere, oriental rugs, footsteps echoing as they walked, tall doors, classical piano music coming from a tower above and a flourishing garden outside. Mike had seen pictures from old European castles, this looked a lot like it, but to actually walk around in the halls was different from seeing it on post-card. No souvenir could bring the full experience, they didn’t offer the smells, the sounds, the sights, the textures all at once.

Mike knew that he wouldn’t get an opportunity to visit such a placed any time soon so he tried to memorize everything the best he could. Besides, he was fairly sure that European castles didn’t have house elves wiping the windows and dusting the artworks.

”Who lives here?” Dustin asked, eyes glimmering in awe.

He didn’t touch anything, but Mike could see how badly he wanted to do it. He had to stop his hand midair several times as it had subconsciously started reaching for the marble sculptures and the vases which stood on pedestals everywhere. The flowers were all in splendid condition and smelled lovely. Dustin leaned forward as close as he could get without touching them, hands clutched together tightly as though they were in cuffs.

”No one at the moment,” Will replied. He didn’t hesitate touching anything. He let his fingers run against the walls as he walked through one room and into the next. He looked so comfortable and nonchalant that he could pass for a prince, as though he owned the place. ”If something were to happen it’s a good thing to have a sturdy building like this. There’s canons everywhere and protective cellars underground.”

”If the Upside Down invades…” Eleven mumbled. Will didn’t seem to hear her, or else he ignored her.

An epicene house elf, altogether about two feet tall, walked past with a bucket of soapy water. Its face was wrinkly and crooked, but rather cute in its ugliness in the same way as an English bulldog could be. It looked a lot older than most of the other elves, who cheerfully hummed and danced around as they cleaned. It didn’t look up until Will cleared his throat.

”Yes?” the elf said, lifting its gaze, heavy-lidded and frumpy. It stopped and put the bucket down on the floor, but a sassy hand on its hip.

”Steve Harrington,” Will said, ”Is he here, by any chance?”

”Useless human, Harrington,” the elf muttered. It picked the bucket up again and started walking away, head shaking in a disgruntled fashion. With its back turnt to them, it added, ”He’s in the laundry room.”

They went down some stairs into the underground. The temperature dropped rapidly and it got dark. Some lanterns hung on the wall, lighting the way into an intricate tunnel system. Mike didn’t like it at all. Will guided them with confidence. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, but Mike couldn’t help but to obsessively try to memorize every turn and count the lanterns in case they’d get lost.

”Here’s the laundry room,” Will told them and pushed a door open.

It was a massive hall and it was much brighter than the tunnels which had brought them there. Light linens draped near the ceiling, baskets of table cloths, towels, curtains and clothes filled the floor throughout. A wooden washing machine which looked like a giant hamster wheel rotated at the other end of the hall. Four elves were ran at the top, making it spin. It was the busiest room bar far. There was activity and elves everywhere, chattering voices overlapping each other and giggles as two younger elves threw underwear at each other.

And amid the tiny elves and the laundry sat Steve. He was on his knees on the floor, sorting colors and fabrics into piles. He didn’t notice them coming until Dustin and Max started chortling. Mike tried to stifle his own laughter.

”Hey, Cinderella!” Dustin called.

”You guys!” Steve exclaimed, now staring at them, pointing. He got up from the floor, revealing the full glory of his house elf outfit, and stumbled towards them, avoiding the laundry on the floor the best he could. ”Where exactly have you guys been?! For how long have you been here?!”

Dustin opened his arms for a hug but Steve just put his nose in the air dramatically. He smelled like he had soaked in soapy water for days. His fingers were wrinkly and there were deflated bubbles stuck to the tips of his hair. His knees were flushed red.

”I was kidnapped! Can you believe it?!” He threw his hand in the air like a furious Italian. ”I fell from the fucking sky like an angel, the next thing I know I’m strapped to a wagon of some sort and then I was forced to work like a maid with a bunch of fucking gnomes! Where have you guys been?!”

Mike laughed out loud, patted him consolingly on the shoulder. Steve ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. He was about to ramble on about his horrid experience as a maid, but then he paused abruptly, pointed at Will as though he didn’t even realize that he was amongst them until now. Will swallowed, still trying to hold himself back from cracking into laughter.

”Will Byers,” Steve noted blandly, still pointing, blinking dumbly. ”Well, it’s good to see you alive but you’ve got some explaining to do, my friend.”

”I know. It’s good to see you too. How have you been?”

”Me? Oh, I was doing just fine until I was kidnapped. How have you been? You’ve got some nasty bruises there,” Steve continued, pointing at his legs and arms, face contracting as if he could personally feel the pain. 

”Yes, I’m aware of that too. It’s fine though.”

”Huh.” Steve put his hands on his hips. He eyed them up and down and stopped when laying his eyes on Charlie. Charlie was shying away in the background, closest to the exit. He almost got startled when Steve looked right at him. ”And who are you?”

”I’m Charlie,” he replied rather formally. He stretched a hand out and Steve shook it while still staring at him, doubting, investigating.

”It’s nice to meet you, Charlie,” Steve said at last, uncertainly.

He didn’t even need to say anything more, everything he was thinking was written all over his face, readable as a book. He was thinking about all the excessive debating they had had about this infamous Charlie Evenbrook and now he was suddenly here. But Steve had learned the skill to just accept that things could take sudden turns. It must have started some time when his lame girlfriend turned out to be a kickass fighter. He just raised his eyebrows, hummed and moved on without asking any further questions.

This whole encounter was so absurd that Mike could only chuckle. The house elves kept glancing in their direction, some even muttered things to one another and pointed accusingly at Steve for not working harder.

Mike truly wished he had been there to witness the elves teaching Steve how to do the laundry, it must had been hilarious. He wanted a classic novel with an illustration of Steve at the cover, clad in draping fabric, standing next to an elf and with a title written in an old English typographic: ’Steve’s lesson’, or maybe ’Steve and the Elves’. And the moral of the story would be how the spoiled, bratty Steve turned nice when he the elves taught him that working in a team was a cool thing or whatever. Mike’s imagination was bursting of ideas. 

”You’re free now, Steve, let’s go!” Lucas concluded. He didn’t seem the slightest fond of laundry cellar.

He headed for the exit without saying anything more and the rest of them followed. But just as they were going to leave, an elf grabbed Steve’s ankle, almost making him fall over. And then another one came to hold him in place, and then another one and then another one. Before Mike even had the time to think, Steve was overwhelmed by elves pulling at him, refusing to let him leave. They shrieked furiously, an awful, high-pitched sound that made Mike’s head feel like it was about to explode. He pressed his hands over his ears and tried to kick the elves away the best he could. It wasn’t very efficient, they soon started clinging onto his legs instead.

”Leave me alone!” Steve wailed.

Dustin and Eleven pulled at his arms to get him out of the laundry room while Nancy was ready to close the door the moment they had him out. Mike had to throw himself against the wall, slamming the elves in the process in order to make the them let go of him. Will and Charlie tried to talk the elves into serenity, but they only stuck their tongues out at them and ignored their pleading. Lucas did some sort of tap dancing so they wouldn’t be able to cling onto him.

It took them a good while before they made it out and the door was shut between themselves and the elves. Mike did get frightened in there, but now that they were in safety again he could see the humor in it. They dunked Steve on the back all the way out of the tunnel system, teasing him and asking him questions about what the hell had happened.

”I’m sorry about that, Steve, I don’t know why they’re like this,” Will said earnestly with a sigh.

”Don’t worry, it’s not your fault,” Steve assured him.

He peered and had to shield his eyes to not get blinded when they left the castle and stepped out in the bright daylight. He kept blinking frantically and rubbing his eyes. Nobody told him that it was in a way Will’s fault for even creating them in the first place.

”Hey, Will?” Lucas began. That concerned, disapproving expression remained on his face. He kept his eyes on the ground, didn’t look up for a moment until Will was right next to him. ”Those elves. Are they okay in there?”

”Oh, yes, of course!” Will stumbled. ”They’re house elves. That’s what they do. It’s their natural habitat, so to speak. And they get to rest plenty and they can take time off to do other things if they’d like. And they get payed for doing this. It’s not slavery, I promise.”

Lucas just hummed. As if those were the exact words he needed to hear, his mood lighten up again. That aspect hadn’t even cross Mike’s mind until now and it made him wonder how frequently Lucas felt like the odd one out in their group and in their common society, just like Mike often did. For a moment Mike felt deeply ashamed by how he tended to always forgot that, and also how he probably hurt others just like they hurt them without even realizing. Did that make him a horrible person?

***

They walked through the castle’s garden and followed the path from there, back to where they had come from. There were more people around now than when they had left Tinkerbell’s in the morning. Mike thought he spotted the old man with the stick and the man whose shirt he was still wearing. There was a similar wagon and a donkey at least, but it was hard to tell who the people were from afar. The fairies were dancing around in a big circle on a hill.

”So, it’s time for lunch, isn’t it?” Charlie nudged.

There was a restaurant located further ahead on the left side of the path. There were tables outside around which people sat, eating and chatting. Some horses grazed freely around them, the halters and saddles still on. Some kids picked flowers nearby and a waiter was on his way over with some cool lemonade and sugary buns. It looked like a view straight out of a romantic fantasy. Mike wanted to be a part of it so badly, he really did, but he knew that caving in to it was dangerous. He had thought about it already.

”We told Holly that we were going to get Steve and then come back,” Mike reminded them, sternly. He was actually reminding himself as much as the rest of them. He felt taut and reluctant, but this was the right thing to do. They had to go back. Their mission was finished. They had found Holly and Will and they were reunited again. ”Will, since this gate isn’t finished, which gate is the closest from here?” he forced himself to ask.

Will gave him a look that absolutely broke his heart, because Will himself looked so heartbroken. Mike had to turn his face away. Even his other friends seemed to think that his implication was outrageous. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, tried to keep his posture straight.

”You’re not leaving already, are you?” Will floundered.

”Mom and dad are really worried, it’s not right,” Mike said blankly.

Will lowered his head, disappointed. Mike wanted to let him know how happy he was to be here, that he thought Will’s world was amazing, that the child within him yearned to stay, but he knew himself well enough to realize that if he started doubting his own plan, they’d never get out of here. It wasn’t Mike’s command, it was the world’s. His parents, his college program, his future. Of course he wanted to stay, but he knew that he couldn’t. And since this world was already under attack, how could he be certain that it would forever remain an idyllic fantasy? What if the Upside Down occupied everything?

”There’s so much more to see!” Will pleaded. ”You haven’t even seen everything in this kingdom yet. There’s mermaids in the Northon Harbor where Charlie’s from and you have to meet the paladins before you leave! Holly’s doing fine, she doesn’t want to go back to Hawkins middle school anyway. Why would she? This place is so much better than the real world! Don’t you like it?”

”Of course I like it! But there’s another world that’s waiting for us, that’s where we belong. If you only knew how distressed your family is you’d know that it isn’t right to stay here forever!”

Mike hated his friends for making him have this conversation, for not backing him up although they had made the plan together and worked towards it as one, determined team. He hated them for pretending not to hear, for having their own silly conversation just to block out the sound, for making Mike seem like the bad guy who was ruining all the fun and for forgetting the things they promised mrs Byers and for throwing everything else they had worked so hard for in the real world away for a moment of adventure. When they returned there would be nothing left for them to return to. It was bad enough already.

”Let’s just get something to eat at least. Being hungry won’t help us the slightest,” Will muttered, nodding towards the restaurant. 

There was no table big enough for all of them to fit around so they sat down directly in the soft grass. Nancy, Max and Will went inside to order for all of them. Mike sprawled out and lay down on his back, the sun warming his face. Dustin and Steve were still chatting about the horrors of the time with the elves.

Mike’s heart was still racing incongruously and his breathing was heavy. He hated arguing with Will because Will never argued back. He was already overwhelmed by the feeling of being an awful friend. Mike kept his eyes closed because seeing Charlie teaching Eleven how to make flower crowns was so sweet it hurt. Why didn’t Mike think of making flower crowns?

”Mike?” Lucas said.

He sat right next to him, pulling grass out of the ground restlessly. It was hard to take someone dressed like that seriously, but Mike heard it in his voice that he wasn’t joking around right now. He spoke so quietly that neither Dustin and Steve nor Charlie and Eleven could hear. It scared him a little because it could only mean that it was something serious and private.

”Yeah?” Mike kept his eyes closed.

”I think you better talk to Will.”

”I just fucking did Lucas and it didn’t go so well, as you may have noticed.”

Charlie instructed Eleven how she needed to pick the flowers with longer stems or else she wouldn’t be able to tie them together and she took the advice like a good pupil. She asked for the names of the flowers and Charlie told her a bunch of strange names. Some of the kids who had been picking flowers at the other side of the restaurant approached them, shyly. They said something to Charlie in that foreign language and handed him and Eleven some of their finds. Charlie taught Eleven how to say ’thank you’ and the kids ran off again, giggling.

Lucas sighed, not out of irritation but out of compassion, which was honestly worse. Mike wanted to yell at something, someone, but everyone was being so annoyingly friendly and understanding that he only felt even more like a bastard. Mike tried to think of the grass between his fingers, the sound of happy people chattering and birds chirping — until he realized that the birds were also too lovely and their cheerful singing gave him the impression that they were mocking him.

”I didn’t mean about whether to leave or to stay,” Lucas said, shifting his position. ”Because honestly, I think this is just the tip of an iceberg. I mean, just think about all the things we’ve seen so far. They mean something. There’s a reason why Will created all of this.”

Mike opened his eyes, pushed himself up using his elbows. He squinted, looked at Lucas. Lucas threw a handful of grass away. The wind made it swirl away. He shrugged, didn’t say anything more even when Mike tried to make him go on.

”What do mean?” he asked at last.

”He’s running away from something. This is his escape.”

”From what?”

Lucas looked straight ahead rather than in Mike’s direction. His eyes and skin glowed in the sun. He just seemed to thrive in the summer, in a warm, golden light, amongst colors and florals. Hawkins’s grey shades didn’t do him any justice. This was a weird timing to notice such a thing, but it suddenly dawned on Mike and he knew that he’d never forget how brilliant his friend was and how happy he was to have him — perhaps also for the very reason that he could be so blunt with him. If anyone could make Mike realize his mistakes, it was Lucas, and Mike could sense that whatever he was going to say now, it’d hurt a little but it’d be for the better.

”I think you know that better than I do,” was what Lucas finally said and he cracked up in a grin as he said it.

Why this indirect way of talking? Mike sighed. He sat up with his legs stretched out, one over the other, leaning against his palms. What kind of answer was that? Mike knew Will better than most, or at least he’d like to think that, but Lucas obviously had an intention when bringing this up. Mike just wanted him to spit it out right away because Will would soon return with the food and who knew when they’d next get a chance to talk like this, just the two of them?

”Mike, come on, you know what I’m talking about.” Lucas rolled his eyes. ”Something happened at the restaurant that night when Will vanished. Everyone knows that already. And I don’t want to, like, invade your privacy or anything so I’m not going to ask you to explain it to me — but whatever happened, you should solve it out with Will as soon as possible. I really think that’s the key here. You won’t get him to return to the real world with us as long as there’s something in the real world he’s hiding from, you know what I mean?”

Mike’s brain butchered its way through this. It processed one syllable after the other, though in random order, not making much sense. Restaurant. Key. Return. Know. Vanished. Already. Solve. He didn’t even dare to breathe before he had deciphered everything and instilled it properly. Lucas just chuckled at his petrified expression. Then he grabbed a handful of grass and threw it at Mike’s face. Mike didn’t even react. Some grass got stuck in his hair and he let it stay there.

”You seriously thought we didn’t notice?” Lucas frowned.

”How much do you know?” he blurted in return.

He immediately regretted it but Lucas was already raising his eyebrows at him. Mike wanted to disappear through the ground, dissolve, just anything. He slowly lay down in the grass again, closed his eyes. If he just remained still enough he could pretend that he was dead. Before he closed his eyes, he managed to catch the hint in Lucas’ eyes. He knew. Everything. And somehow, this wasn’t even news to Mike since he had come knocking on that stupid closet door countless of times. Why would he do that if he didn’t know Mike was in there? But this time he caught Mike off-guard and he was self-aware enough to know that before he shut Lucas off by pretending to die, he had already let him in.

”I don’t mind, you know. I doesn’t change anything. We’ve been friends for a long time,” Lucas said.

Mike rolled over on his stomach, face down in the grass, arms straight down his sides, tending to be a log or a dead worm. The grass was cool and the straws tickled his skin. Lucas laughed and patted him on the back, casually, brotherly. Mike didn’t know if he was terrified or immensely happy or maybe both at the same time with some confusion, relief, embarrassment and gratitude sprinkled into the mix. It was overwhelming. Mike didn’t know what to do with his face and body and even less what to say in response. In a profound way, he felt as though Lucas had just set him free. What does one do once they’re free?

He could hear the sound of steps in the grass and glass knocking against glass. The rattle came accompanied by voices. Mike kept his face pressed against the ground, still laying as still as he could, pretending to be dead. At this point he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to face the world again, especially not Will, who was probably so close he could have touched him if he stretched an arm out.

”What’s up with Mike?” Max asked, her voice coming from just above him.

”He doesn’t want to get a sunburn,” Lucas mocked.

”Not even I have gotten sunburned!” She poked at his ribs with her foot.

She put down a tray with dishes and cutlery on the grass as she answered Lucas question regarding whether it was true or not that red-haired people were as sensitive to the sun as people with albinism. Will and Nancy carried similar trays. They created a little picnic spot near the restaurant facade. The food smelled incredible, but Mike could only smell the earthiness beneath his face.

”Mike, would you like some lemonade?” Nancy asked.

Did he have any other choice? He rolled over. The bright light of having the sun shining right on the face suddenly felt obnoxious. Nancy sat next to him with a glass of lemonade stretched out towards him. He grabbed it, sat up and placed it at an even spot on the ground. He almost felt a bit disoriented after having his eyes closed for so long.

Eleven had a futile little flower crown on top of her head, barely holding itself together with the clumsy knots, but it was adorable that way. The pinks and yellows and whites of the flowers against her brown hair made her look like an enlarged fairy. She seemed very proud about it, smiling every time she adjusted it.

Will had a more voluptuous flower crown on his head. It looked like a proper Swedish midsummer crown with a variety of flowers and leaves stuck in it. One daisy-looking flower kept drooping from the circle, bothering Will’s sight. He kept sweeping it away until Charlie crawled closer to fix it. He held Will’s head still with one hand and tied the stem into the rest of the structure.

Mike didn’t notice that he was staring before he noticed that Lucas was staring at him. When Mike turned his face towards Lucas instead in a ’what?’- accusing type of way, Lucas just laughed and reached for what looked like fried chicken.

”Will, you have still not showed us any magic tricks!” Dustin remembered. He licked some sauce off his thumb. ”You’re a wizard, aren’t you? Will the Wise!”

Will chuckled, eyes locked at the ground in front of him. Charlie put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently, mumbling something like ’come on’, ’show them’ and other encouragements that were barely perceivable to anyone else. Will finally rolled his eyes and caved in.

”Yes, I’m sort of a wizard, indeed,” he admitted in a very casual tone as though it wasn’t a big deal, but the way he smiled made it seem like a very big deal despite that.

”Show us something!” Eleven cheered. 

”No, I don’t think… okay, wait.”

Will closed his eyes. He took slow, deep breaths. The trays with dishes started vibrating. Then, right amid them, in the middle of their picnic, a sprout bursted up through the ground. It was tiny, but it was definitely not there before. Will opened his eyes again, shrugged. Mike was still staring at the sprout. For a split moment he was underwhelmed, he had honestly anticipated something grander than a little sprout after everything Abebi had said about Will’s powers, but then he realized that making things grow with sheer mind-force was actually unbelievably cool and as his brain instilled that Will had actually caused this sprout to be there, he felt increasingly dizzy.

”I need to be careful and rest,” Will explained, a bit disgruntled himself. ”I can do better when I’m in a better condition, I promise.”

”I think it’s really cool that you can make things grow,” Eleven said, poking at the sprout with her finger tip.

There was something dejected over her face, yet she smiled. She had her eyes locked at the ground so she probably didn’t even see Will discreetly wiping his left nostril. He then wiped his finger on the grass next to him and kept eating like nothing had happened. Perhaps it was for the better that she didn’t see it.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut warning!
> 
> I literally can't believe that I've written a sex scene and now I'm posting in for people to read. Is this a milestone?? Hah! My respect for smut writers has increased drastically since writing this because it's seriously difficult and awkward. I'm also confused because I've never read a fic which acknowledges the fact that sex can be messy and weird??
> 
> Anyway, I just wanted to warn you guys in case you don't feel like reading that stuff.

They spent the day going from one place to the other. Will introduced them to a whole bunch of people and everywhere they went the locals seemed to know who they were already. They ran into Abebi near a pharmacy, a paper bag squeezed under her arm, picking leaves from a cherry tree to feed the tiny one with.

They got to watch one of the ships sail off into the air, riding on the winds with incredible smoothness and speed. The sailors rowdy singing could be heard until the ship disappeared out of sight, like a faint echo from the skies. This explained why the ships were so large. Mike knew that they were meant for something more than the lake, but he didn’t expected them to sail aloft the water and the ground. He could only imagine how beautiful the view must be from the heights and how wonderful the nights must be when you were so close to the stars and the clouds were below you. They remained by the lake for a long while afterwards, peering in the direction which the ship had sailed off towards, without seeing anything.

When they finally got sick of it, Charlie bought them some candy and snacks from a flea market which they shared and munched happily and the ship became just another one of the many great memories from the day. The candy was really good actually and they tasted healthier than the American candy they were used to. There was a feeble flavor of wild nature infused into the caramels, jellies and lollipops, just a subtile hint of herbs and wood mixed in with the familiar sweetness. Mike kept a caramel on his tongue the whole afternoon until his palate felt scratchy and sore, that’s when he gave the softer snacks a try.

Will was eager to show them everything, so eager that it made Mike queasy. It seemed like Will wanted to prove something, show him how amazing this dimension was and how much there was to see and do and how friendly everyone was. Mike didn’t need any proof, he knew that already, but he let Will guide them around and he enjoyed it as much as he could albeit being nervous about the future. He knew that as the day would come to an end he’d eventually have to tell Will that, despite everything, they had to return to Hawkins.

Somehow it felt like the longer he’d wait, the longer he’d let Will believe that they were going to stay and that he had won them over with all these actives, the harder it would be to tell him. In fact, the reason which made Mike postpone the conversation was what Lucas had told him — that he needed to solve things out first. That seemed like an immense, scary task because there was simply too much to solve. Years of unsaid things had piled up to an underwater mountain range. Merely reaching the mountains was a task in itself since they were found so deep down. Where were they even supposed to begin?

***

They had finished most of their eating supper and everyone was talking like old friends, including Charlie and a witch who happened to eat alone just nearby. They sat around construction made out of rocks with ember in the center, a bunch of finished skewers tossed on the side and a few of them left on top of the grid. Oils and moisture slowly dripped into the coal and Eleven flipped the skewers around every ten seconds or so, determined to make the grilled surface perfectly even and beautiful. The coal wasn’t as burning hot anymore, but it radiated a soft heat and glowed cosily, giving their faces a yellow warmth in the otherwise dim old barn. The reek from the tables raised through an open hole in the ceiling, dissolved into the night sky above.

”The mermaids are like the elves of the ocean,” Charlie told them. Apparently there were plenty of mermaids in the Northon Harbor where he lived. ”They’re beautiful and graceful and so knowledgable that it’s frightening, but they’re cold. I used to get hurt by it but now I know that it’s nothing personal towards me, it’s just a part of their nature to keep people at a distance. I suppose it’s because they’ve been hurt in the past.”

The witch hummed. Her dark eyes were fierce and clever. She told stories in a very captivating way, almost as though her voice cast a spell over the listening and pulled you in, made you see her stories vividly before you. Charlie was a good story telling as well, but when he described scenery and events Mike never got the same visual idea in his head as when the witch spoke.

He was almost certain that he saw a mermaids in the coal, then one emerged with the reek, swimming its way up the ceiling, hair billowing behind her as she swirled around. It was probably just his imagination but Nancy seemed to have seen the same thing as she stared into the coal with profound fascination.

”They’re afraid of mankind. They used to adore the fishermen and explorers and they adored the mermaids as much. The humans thought they were so beautiful that they wanted to bring them home so they could look at them every day. They cared more about their own desire than the fact that the mermaids suffocated and died when they were brought on land,” the witch said, her eyes absent but her voice present. ”They made stunning trophies, the mermaids, but to have a dead mermaid in the living room is morbid, it’s a so immoral that you have no right to call yourself a human person if do. You’re nothing but a beast for harming something so pure. I disdain every man who thinks a maiden’s beauty belongs to him more than life belongs the maiden.”

”Are there any pictures of the mermaids?” Dustin asked. He put his skewer back on the grid to get some more heat. He licked his finger and continued, ”My girlfriend loves them. She wants to be like a mermaid, she says. She hasn’t cut her hair in ages and she always sleeps with braids to make it curly. She wants to dye it purple one day too, but she’s afraid she’ll end up looking like a goth instead of a mermaid.”

Charlie told him that the mermaids were very secretive, didn’t like to be photographed, didn’t like to have artists portray them either. Dustin also had to explain what goth was and what hair dye was used for. The witch seemed to like the idea, she nodded approvingly at everything. Lucas and Max contributed with that Dustin and his girlfriend were not goths and the whole thing with nerds, jocks, brats, theatre kids, grunge and hippies. They did so in a lighthearted manner, laughing at how stupid it was to categorize people into groups. Charlie and the witch seemed to think it made perfect sense to belong to a tribe, that it was only normal to stick to those who were like yourself. This turned into a very interesting discussing, but Mike didn’t participate.

He was wrapped in a blanket, seated on top of a cushion. He had eaten a lot so his belly was bloated and a slumberous feeling of being perfectly content had washed over him. It was tempting to just remain by the table, let the night be wonderful and inspiring, just listening.

Nancy was now telling the story of how Steve used to behave in high school and how, in the mundane world, being a jerk could make you popular. Steve tried to interfere but Nancy shushed him, laughing. It was honestly more of a memory lane than anything else. Neither of them seemed to care that much about whether Charlie and the witch understood their point. Steve poked at her with a skewer.

”Steve!” she whined. She picked up a skewer herself and poked at him back. Then he poked again. It was so immature and childish but also hilarious to watch.

Will sat at the opposite side, watching the battle, chuckling. He bit into a piece of aubergine and slid it to the side, off the skewer. His face was full of shadows that enhanced every angle and every highland. He still wore the flower crown but it had sagged and looked a bit frumpy now, the leaves hanging limply and the flowers lifeless. He laughed at something Max said. Mike felt warmer and it wasn’t because of the coal.

He could stay here forever, he thought, it was so lovely. He didn’t want to ruin it but he knew that there would be a new excuse tomorrow that would make him postpone the talk yet again. And seriously, hadn’t he postpones it for too long already? He should have said those things ten years ago, he was already far overdue. This was lovely, but how lovely wouldn’t it be to just have it solves out?

He watched everything through a melancholic filter, as though he was saying goodbye to it. He felt it deep in his guts that nothing would be quite the same if he spoke, but what if it could turn into something even better? Was it worth it? Perhaps it wasn’t even a matter of whether it was worth it or not, because he didn’t have any other choice. Will couldn’t run away forever and neither could he.

Mike searched for a solution around him, some vague idea that could nudge him into the right direction. He didn't know where to start. In the end, he just squeezed himself out, excusing himself, and headed towards the barn’s open doors. He went outside just hoping that Will would follow. He sensed that he would catch the hint, they could usually communicate non-verbally with one another. Mike knew that Will anticipated this conversation as well.

It was lukewarm outside. The fireflies were buzzing around. A farmer was scuffing his cattle towards a barn further away. Lanterns hung in the trees. He had grown used to this view. The countryside landscape and the beauty wasn’t as captivating anymore. The feeling of familiarity and consistency was comforting, he felt a little bit less like he was far away from home. And Mike could still hear the rest of his friends inside, the familiar, soothing voices which he knew so well, although they blended in together with the other guests’ chatter and laughter. He could do this, he thought, and for the first time he felt ready.

He only had to wait a brief moment before Will had showed up on his left, silently. He had left the flower crown inside. They stood next to one another as if time had paused. Mike waited for him to say something while Will probably waited for Mike as well. The readiness was so profound, loud and strong, but kept behind a wall. It felt like a dam that was about to burst, and once it bursted… what would happen? He, and Will alike, stood like petrified, not looking at one another, not moving the slightest. Mike’s mouth was dry and his jaw felt locked, and yet he managed to force out a pleading:

”Will, come on, let’s not… be like this.”

”Sure,” Will replied, impassively.

But then they remained quiet and tense anyway. Mike stuffed his hands in his pocket and swayed restlessly. It was tempting to whistle a cheerful melody to ease it up, but that would only amplify how awkward it was. Mike hated that it was awkward, it wasn’t supposed to be.

He guessed it had to do with how they both had changed. In a way, it felt like the Will he used to know was already long gone, the little kid with the crayons. This guy, who was both broader and stronger than himself, was scarcely even Will Byers. Mike barely even knew this guy, it felt like. Or perhaps he did know him, but what made Mike feel so uncertain was how certain Will was. Because Will, unlike himself, had left the fright behind. He was proud and brave while Mike wasn’t.

So much of Will’s personality had derived from fear and insecurity, but now he was fearless and secure, and everything had changed subsequently. Mike felt as though he was already losing this discussion because Will didn’t need him to agree to do whatever he wanted anyway. He couldn’t force Will to come with him and Will didn’t need Mike to stay, so there was really nothing Mike had to set up against him. If anyone would cave in and let the other have their way, it was Mike, because Mike needed Will more than Will needed him. And thinking about it, perhaps it had always been like that — Will could manage on his own, he thrived in solitude with only his own mind for company, while Mike on the other hand couldn’t stand being with himself. His mind wasn’t capable of creating beautiful thoughts like Will’s.

Knowing this made Mike feel smaller and weaker than he ever had. All he could do was plead and beg. He had absolutely no power in this situation which he was now throwing himself into. But he was ready to be vulnerable and naked. He wanted Will to be the stronger one, challenge him, be direct and brazen with him, strip him to the bone and maybe even ruin him — as long as he spoke the truth, he welcomed it. In fact, Mike even craved it. Like a flash, the realization came to him, that maybe he needed to be ruined in order for something new to replace it. He couldn’t hold on to his old self and simultaneously expect himself to change.

”It’s amazing, this place,” he started, as casual as he could. ”It’s great.”

”It sure is.”

”But… why?”

”What do you mean ’why’?” Will frowned, chuckling. He pulled his eyes away from the view to look at Mike.

”I mean — ” Mike paused, searched for the words to say, took a deep breath, ” — You created this for a reason, I presume, and you keep coming back here for a reason and you feel happy here for a reason. And I think it’s great that you’ve found something that makes you feel happy, but I wonder why you don’t feel that way in the real world, if that makes sense…”

Will started walking towards a trail path. Mike followed like a dutiful dog. The trail swirled around the hills and the village. There were floating lanterns along the way, scarcely any people. Will’s limp had improved a lot, he didn’t wince in pain anymore either, unless something drastic happened. As they left the barn behind the night got more silent. Mike soon realized that they were walking towards the lake. Will had a subtile smile on his lips.

”I am happy in the first dimension, but I like it here as well,” Will said after what felt like an eternity.

”But you’re getting yourself involved with so much trouble by coming here. If you’re happy in our world, then why can’t you just stay?”

”Because I don’t feel like it.”

Mike couldn’t cope with this slow, curt way of talking. He needed to say everything he wanted to say and he needed Will to respond to it properly. His chest was simmering, his head racing, but he couldn’t let himself speak before Will invited him to do so. He didn’t want to be too pushy because Will would just close up and stop listening. He had that sort of power now, Mike could feel it. Will must have felt it too, because he cracked up in amusement and the moment Mike gave up on trying to make him elevate his answer, he did it by his own free will:

”You know that my life hasn’t always been easy. I feel like I’m cursed. It’s just one thing after the other. It never ends. And I’m trying my best to cope with it but sometimes I just need a break,” he said. He sounded dejected by this, but it soon washed off and in a lighter tone he continued, ”And this is where I get my break.” He gestured with his hand around him, proudly. ”It’s nice to feel like I have some sort of control over my own life, what happens and who gets to be a part of it. I decide that here. When I’m in the ’real world’, as you like to call it, it feels like everything just happens to me and there’s nothing I can do to change it.”

They had arrived at the lake. Will climbed the cliffs and sat down with his legs stretched towards the water, after putting his shoes. His bare feet almost touched the surface. Mike sat down next to him, curled up like a ball.

The cliff was cool and partially covered with lichen. The fairies giggled and flew away the moment they came too close. Everything around them felt distant. It felt like the night belonged only to them, like the hour had heard Mike’s thoughts building up to this moment and now it wanted to give them the privacy they needed, that’s why Tinkerbell’s at the other side of the lake wasn’t as noisy and why there were no people around. Or maybe it was Will’s thoughts the night had listened to? It was after all his world and not Mike’s.

”But if you always run away from it, nothing will ever change, will it?” Mike said, trying to not sound accusing or spiteful. He wrapped his arms around his knees, tilted his head to the side.

”But it doesn’t need to change as long as I have this place to retreat to whenever I need a break, it’s fine like this. I like this balance that I have in my life right now, where I get to be Will Byers the college student and then I get to be Will the Wise as well. Why choose if I don’t have to?”

Will peeled some lichen off with his finger tip. It crumbled when he rubbed against it. Mike watched him without saying anything, not knowing what to say. When really looking, he was still the same Will as always. He had the same, innocent eyes. Like a Disney princess, he could probably attract cute animals with his aura, just because he almost seemed to be one of them. He was a pretty fawn in spirit. It was an adorable contrast, his stronger body and his softer atmosphere. Mike got startled when Will suddenly looked up from the cliff, catching him staring.

”You’re confusing, Mike, do you know that?” he said.

”I am confused, that much I know.”

”No, you’re confusing.”

”Well, that’s just because I am confused.”  
”I think you’re confused because you’re confusing.”

”I’m very confused now.”

”Me too.”

Both of them laughed. The air felt easier to breathe now. He had to stifle a smile to not lose his focus. This was not a cutesy chitchat. Mike came here to convince Will to leave his dearest treasure behind, he had to remind himself, but he couldn’t stop feeling like this was enchanting. It felt like old times, back when they both lives a bike-ride away from one another, hung out in school and daydreamed in the basement afterwards.

Mike suddenly remember how they could lay on their backs directly on the floor, altering between looking at the ceiling and closing their eyes, telling each other what they saw in their heads and weld their fantasy worlds together into one. At the time it had felt like a game, but now he realized how intimate it was to share your mind with someone like that. They gifted each other their own worlds. Wasn’t this practically the same thing, expect Mike had nothing left to give Will in return?

”You know,” Mike began. He stretched his legs out towards the water, took a deep breath. Unfurling his body made him feel more open, less protected. ”I really meant it, what I said at the restaurant that night. I really like you, Will. It may not seem like it because I literally fuck everything up all the time, but I mean it.”

He turned his face to see Will’s reaction. He was smiling but clearly troubled, but not in that pitying way like he did at the restaurant. The sight of Will’s pitying face was still burned into Mike’s head and any reaction that wasn’t pitying was fine. Mike didn’t dare to move, didn’t dare to blink. Every second felt like an hour and he’d soon need to breath again. Then Will shrugged, swept his hair out of his face, sighed.

”I thought I had this figured out,” he whined, still holding his bangs between his fingers, palm to his head. He finally let his hand fall to the side again, limply. ”I don’t know what to say.”

”Could you just answer one question?” Mike asked. He hadn’t even thought this out beforehand, but the question almost forced its way out of him, ”Do you love Charlie?”

There was a micro pause, but time seemed distorted and just like before, every millisecond felt like several minutes.

”Yes,” Will said, looking the the lichen.

”But Charlie’s not even real, is he?”

”He’s real. Everything here is real.”

”But he’s literally your own imagination,” Mike floundered, ”How can you be in love with your own imagination?”

Will looked up, raised an eyebrow at him. Mike felt like a complete idiot for not understanding what he meant by that. He thought his concern was very relevant. He blinked blankly. When Will understood that Mike was clueless, he rolled his eyes, scraped some lichen off the cliff and threw it at him.

”Everyone’s been in love with their imagination at some point!” Will frowned. ”I’m sure you have as well. You know, nobody really knows another person, not entirely. We can’t read each other’s minds, we don’t spend every second together. No matter how close you are to someone, there will still be parts of them that you have no idea about. And when you first get to know someone, you literally have no idea whatsoever. It’s just a matter of clues and imagination based off the clues. You can imagine what that person’s like, but you don’t actually know, but you can choose to trust your intuition and perhaps it’s correct, perhaps it’s not.”

”But this is a different case, Will. It’s not like that.”

”It’s not far from,” he insisted. ”Have you ever had a crush on someone who you don’t know that well? Like a friend of a friend or someone it class you’ve never actually talked to?”

”Sort of, I don’t know,” Mike said truthfully.

He wouldn’t call it a crush. It was just a girl in his literature class in high school. He wasn’t really attracted to her, he didn’t want to pursue anything, but when he stepped into the classroom his eyes always located her before they located anybody else. When she wasn’t in class, he noticed. If she changed her hair, he also noticed. He just had an increased awareness when it came to her, something he couldn’t really explain why, but something about her drew him in. But no, he never talked to her and he didn’t even want to either.

”What about a celebrity?” Will continued with a shrewd grin.

”Not really.”

”Liar! I know you have!” Will bursted, hitting at Mike with a fist. ”You totally crushed on Tom Cruise in Top Gun! What was it? 1986? ’87? I remember it because I hated Tom Cruise after that. You never said it out loud but it was so obvious. If you were a girl, you would have put pictures of him inside your locker. ’He’s just really cool in the movie’”, Will mimicked fatuously before laughing again.

Mike felt his cheeks flush. He yielded away when Will hit at him, laughing. If Will hadn’t just told him that he loved Charlie, Mike would have thought they were flirting. It made him nervous, but oh he liked it. Mike was quite good a flirting actually, especially after a couple of drinks, but his confidence derived from not even caring in the first place. Now he cared, he cared a whole lot even. That was probably why he was being so coy and awkward, unsure of what to do, unsure of what to say. His arms and hands felt like an excessive mass that he didn’t know where to put.

”Anyway,” Will collected himself. ”You never knew Tom Cruise. You could only imagine what he was like and you liked the idea. And I’ve done the same thing, can’t blame you. It definitely happened a lot in high school. You know, I didn’t have a lot of friends up in Maine. I was shy and weird and on top of that I was the new kid who didn’t know what was cool and where to hang out after school and all of that. As soon as someone noticed my existence I just clung onto them and started imagining us being best friends until graduation. And I loved doing that. I loved what my brain created out of the tiny crumbs I was given, I made myself believe that we really were friends because in my head in made sense. I didn’t even realize that nobody cared and enjoyed my life that way, all made up. It worked.”

It didn’t work.

Mike knew that and Will probably knew it as well. It hurt despite his efforts to protect himself. Mike couldn’t blame him for not facing that truth, it took him a long time before he realized that thinking of himself as a guy who liked girls — only girls — didn’t actually make that undeniable force from pulling at his heart in a different direction. It was still there and he knew it was there all along because it bothered him. Even when he couldn’t feel the actual duality of his love, he could feel the shame and regret that came with it. They were powerful, thorny things that pierced through his own protective walls. Perhaps they weren’t even protective to begin with, not letting himself realize that he was hurt damaged him badly too, but slower.

”But if Charlie is your own imagination, won’t you feel lonely with him in the long run? Since you’re not actually sharing the experience with anybody else?” Mike said.

”He’s real enough and it’s easier that way.”

”Sure, but does it have to be easy in order to be enjoyable? If it’s difficult, does that make it unpleasant automatically?”

Will turned to look at him, seeming startled by this question. His eyes were glassy. He lowered his gaze, yielded away. Mike shifted his hand closer until he could brush against Will’s hand with his finger. Mike wanted to just grab the hand and entangle their fingers into a tight knot, but he took it slow, wanted Will to be the one to make the move when he felt ready to — if he felt ready to. But Will’s face had softened, it didn’t have the same stubborn resistance as before and he let Mike trace the shape of his knuckles without moving his hand away.

”I could learn how to make flower crowns too, you know,” Mike said suggestively, tilting his head to the side, cheeky smile on his lips.

The look on Will’s face seemed about as close to an eye-roll as to crying. He scuffed a little bit closer, shifted his body to face Mike instead of the water. Mike’s heart thumped in his chest, making all the blood in his body rush around alarmingly. Will’s face was nervous and timid for a moment, but he he looked at Mike with a new determination. He had made up his mind about something, Mike could tell. He was calm and brave now. And he was closer than he had ever been, with his eyes warm and welcoming, some strands of brown hair hanging down his forehead, his lips slightly parted. If not now, then Mike would never do it.

”Do you want me to?” he whispered.

”I’ve wanted you to since I was ten,” Will whispered back.

Mike slowly leaned forward. Will met him half-way. Their forehead were leaning against each other, Will’s brown hair mixed with Mike’s black. A warmth built up where their skin touched. They were literally closer than they had ever been and it was still not close enough. It was like a force wanted them to be closer, like they were meant to be.

Mike had his hand cupped around Will’s jaw, his thumb brushing against his cheek. He was careful to not hurt him, to not touch the bruises, but he could feel Will’s fingers digging into the fabric of his own shirt near his waist, pulling ever so gently.

”I’ve always wanted it too. You know that, Will, don’t you?” Mike mumbled. ”It wasn’t just you, it was never one sided. I was so scared and that’s why I didn’t —” 

”Shh.”

Will tilted his head and closed the final gap. His lips were moist and soft, moving tentatively, making sure that they didn’t bump their teeth together. He tasted vaguely of the beer they had to dinner, Mike most likely tasted just the same. Will was careful but Mike could feel his strength in the way he moved, the way his muscles felt the way they relaxed and tensed up. Mike just naturally adapted himself to Will’s pace, let him be in charge. He never thought he’d let Will take the lead like that, but it felt like the most natural thing to do. Before he even had the chance to register what he was doing, he had rolled over on his back and Will had positioned himself over him. Again, it felt like there was a force which made him do it, something raw and natural that came from within, something stronger than himself.

The cliff wasn’t the most comfortable spot to lay on, especially not when another body pressed him down against the rough surface, but Mike had never enjoyed a kiss as much before. It wasn’t lewd or sloppy, it was just passionate, a kiss shared between two people who loved each other. It was like setting years of repressed feelings free all at once. Mike didn’t even care if someone saw them, he literally didn’t care about anything but the feeling of Will’s hands on his waist, his chest, in his hair, under his chin. He took everything Will had to give him and he gave Will everything he had. He had both hands entangled in Will’s hair, pulling him in closer.

Between each kiss they parted to breath. Mike could feel heavy puffs against his lips. He’d lie if he didn’t admit he was turned on. It wasn’t the type of restless horniness he could experience when he was bored or stressed about school, it was the heartfelt craving of closeness and unity. Will seemed to feel the same way, Mike could feel his impatience. The way they moved against each other simply couldn’t mean anything else.

”Will,” Mike panted.

”I know, I know,” Will groaned back.

He pulled back, sat up, leaving Mike feeling empty and frustrated without his body against his own. Will pushed his hair out of the way, still breathing heavily. Mike remained on his back, staring into the starry sky above. Was this heaven after all? His breathing gradually settled. The most intense heat got soothed by the fresh air but every time he recalled the feeling of Will it rouse again like wild fire. He still wanted his lips against his own, if nothing else. He stretched his hand out to grab Will’s, smiling.

”Later?” he asked.

”I’m thinking of somewhere to go right now,” Will replied, clearly frustrated.

”But you’re hurt.”

”Don’t worry about it, it looks worse than it actually is.”

Then he sighed and lay down on his back next to Mike instead. He stretched his hand out to play with his hair, head tilted towards him. Mike could see every detail in his face, every mole and tiny freckle. It was impossible to resist leaning in for another kiss, this time slower.

He traced the nape of Will’s neck and collarbones with his fingertips, loved the way they felt, loved the fact that he knew what they felt like at last. Every fantasy he had ever had about Will now dissolved as reality soothed his inquisitive dissatisfaction. In this moment he also realized just how much he had fantasied about this, about Will.

The first time Mike was aware of his own fantasies was that summer ’85 when the Mind-flayer invaded town anew and the Starcourt mall had opened in Hawkins. That summer was so crammed with events that a scrawny teenage fantasy wouldn’t seem like a big deal in comparison, but somehow it was — perhaps for the very reason because everything was a mess. It was such a beautiful, benevolent thing in the morbid chaos. Mike didn’t see it as such at the time, in fact it scared him more than the monsters, but in retrospect it was one of those coming of age moments that Mike would remember forever.

It was the most random thing, really. Mike, Will, Lucas and Max went to the movie theatre like they used to do a lot. Jane had to stay at home for her safety and Dustin was at camp Know Where. They sat in the dark with ’The breakfast club’ projected onto the big screen, a movie which Mike didn’t like too much so he kept getting distracted. And just by coincidence, it suddenly dawned on him that Will was dangerously hot. Just like that. Out of nowhere.

He could laugh about it now how he could look at Will, age fourteen, with a bowl cut and booty shorts and think that it was the hottest thing he had ever seen, but at the time it truly was. It was as if he saw Will for the first time in the theatre and holy shit it did something to him. He was still in his early teens, insecure, a virgin, deep into the closet, but the desire just emerged from within like a hormonal volcano and all Mike could think about for the rest of the day was how badly he wanted to touch — not look at — what he saw. And every time Will leaned in closer to grab a handful of popcorn and Mike could inhale his scent, he realized that it wasn’t just the touch that he craved. He craved the whole person, all of Will Byers, to be close to him, to be his. This overwhelming feeling of wanting was new to him, because he had never wanted someone like this before.

Mike was now twenty-three and he had had sex many times before, with a bunch of different people even, but now he felt like a fourteen-year old again. This older Mike was still the younger Mike in the movie theatre, they were the same. And he wanted Will now just like he had wanted him then, and the yearning for more was as impatient and insatiable as it was back then. This was intimacy in its purest form.

All the clothes were still in the way but Mike could feel his muscles moving under his fingertips and it was so damn hot. He knew, and he was sure Will knew as well, that their kissing was getting heated again. Mike didn’t want it to stop. He was fine with doing it right here, on the barren cliffs, in the lake, anywhere at all. If none of this was even real to begin with, who cared if someone saw? Wasn’t it sort of exciting to have someone see, too? No? Mike wondered where along the line he had lost his shame.

”Let’s just —” Mike breathed, lifting himself up and looking around almost frantically. Will pulled at his shirt for him to lay down again, whiny and adorable, ” — There. Come on. Let’s go.”

Mike grabbed Will’s hand and pulled him along, off the cliffs. The warmth of his hand made him dizzy. Mike had no idea where he was going, why he took the initiative as though he knew this place, but he saw the grassy patch a bit further away at it was enough. Long straws of reed grew along the shore and a low but dense bush sprawled from the ground, creating at least more privacy than on the cliff. The cliffs also made a good shield from the trail path’s point of view, where no people walked anyway. It was deserted. Just the two of them and the night itself.

”Will,” Mike said. Saying his name was the only message, it was all he wanted to say.

He kneeled down on the grass. The soil and earth was delightful in comparison to the hard surface of the cliffs, though they were smooth. Will went down with him, almost falling over him. Mike was lifting Wills shirt up before he could even comprehend what was happening. He had waited long enough already, it didn’t even cross his mind that they were moving too fast. Besides, Will stretched his arms up to make it easier, panting the whole time. He was just as impatient. As soon as Mike had taken his own shirt off, Will had pushed him onto his back again. The grass tickled against his skin, the cool ground a nice contrast to his warm body.

”I never thought you’d be the one on top,” he said as Will positioned himself above him, one arm on either side of his body, a knee on the ground between his legs. Mike tilted his head backwards as much as he could, inviting Will to kiss every inch of his neck and collarbones, his fingernails gripping into Will’s shoulders. The skin was already sweaty and Mike could feel his heavy breaths forcing his muscles to work.

”Me neither to be completely honest,” Will replied, also amused. His lips brushed against Mike’s skin as he spoke. Then he hesitated for a second. ”Do you mind that?”

”Not at all.” Mike grinned.

Will moved up to kiss him on the lips. Mike could sense that it was some sort of ’good luck’ wish and the anticipation sent a shiver through his whole body. Will chuckled into the nape of his neck. Mike lifted his leg off the ground, too embarrassed to wrap it around Will’s hips, but desperate enough to move it further away from the other.

”I felt that,” Will teased. ”Have you ever taken it before?”

”Yeah.”

”I figured.”

Mike felt a hand trace his leg all the way up from the knee to the hip joint. One thing he truly loved about guys was the big hands, the kind that could clutch his thigh just right, hold you into place, grab you, push you, put you wherever you were supposed to be. There was something so arousing about just offering yourself to someone else, just take whatever they had to wanted to give you and have you whining for more when it wasn’t enough. Will was being gentle, sweet, but Mike loved knowing that he had the capacity to be rough if he wanted to be. That hand on his hip and the broad back were truly the epitome of male beauty, like a fine sculpture symbolizing grace and strength at once.

”Do you want to?” Will asked. He looked up at Mike, who titled his chin towards his chest and looked back, intoxicated and hazy. How was that even a question? He was spreading himself out here like a whore for him to take. But Will hesitated, seemed a bit uncertain for a moment, ”It’s sort of messy and I’m afraid I don’t have any condom and no lube either,” he whined.

”How could you create a world with fucking gnomes but no condoms and lube?” Mike cried.

”We could do it anyway though, right? If you want to?”

”It hurts without lube.”

”Yeah, I know, but it’s okay, let’s just not do it that way this time.”

Mike wanted to do it that way. Every cell in his body wanted it. He seriously contemplated whether it was worth the pain or not, but this was not the first time he encountered this dilemma and every time he decided to give it a try they had to give it up. Thinking about it, he wasn’t prepared for taking it anyway. He had eaten huge meals with ingredients he knew nothing about, it wasn’t worth the risk. Nothing would ruin the mood more than shitting himself and the anxiety of not knowing how his rectum would handle some activity would make it difficult to enjoy it.

He was disappointed for a moment until he felt Will adjusting his position. He straighten up, sat on his knees between Mike’s legs. With clumsy, impatient hands he undid the buttons on his own pants first. Mike lifted himself up on his elbows. The disappointed was immediately dissolved and replaced with the same arousal as before. Just feeling the subtile, unintentional movements from Will’s hands unbuttoning his pants drove him crazy. Before Will had even pulled the fabric down and leaned it, Mike was a panting, happy mess.

”You’re so needy,” Will laughed.

Mike wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that but it sounded sexy so he nodded. Will finally reached into his pants, sending an electric ripple through him. He had to focus on something else for a moment or else’s he’d come right away like an inexperienced virgin. The lake. The sky. The reed. The grass. But then he felt the hot, moisture of Will’s mouth wrapping itself around him and it was impossible to think of anything else. He gasped, smiling. It was bliss. With one hand he held Will’s head, played with his hair, stroke his head, and with the other he kept himself upright. He could feel Will’s tongue moving even when it didn’t lick him directly.

”Is it okay?” Will asked, looking up. ”Just let me know if I’m doing it wrong.”

”It’s amazing, Will, don’t worry,” Mike assured, barely able to even say it.

It took every inkling of self-control to finally make Will stop. Will’s face was as hazy and flushed as his own. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Mike leaned forward to kiss him, not even caring that he'd taste himself when doing so. It wasn’t a hungry kiss, it wasn’t a kiss of gratitude either, it was just love. In the middle of this steamy session, a sudden clearness beamed through and Mike was overwhelmed by how much he felt. He loved Will. It was real this time. Will could leave him hanging, never get him off ever in their life time, never touch him again, never even see him again and Mike would still love him. Perhaps that feeling was ephemeral, but in this moment it was so real and that was the only thing that mattered.

Mike lay back like before, opened his arms for Will to come join him. He did. For a moment they just hugged, rolled around. He even laughed for some reason, he didn’t know why. Then, unable to ignore the aching arousal, Mike let his hands wander down Will’s bare chest and into his pants. Like his mouth, it was hot and moist and it was amazing. He wrapped his hand around him and pulled it out. Will whined into his shoulder and clung onto him just like Mike had done before. Mike liked it that way too, the feeling of Will molding into his movements, hearing him pleading, soft.

Without caring about anything else in the world, they worked each other off, hands everywhere, lips everywhere, bodies grinding, pressure building up. Their panting, groaning and whining blended in with the sound of the crickets and the breeze in the tree tops.


	15. Chapter 15

When Mike came down to the dining hall at Tinkerbell’s, the rest of the bunch were already seated around the same table as the previous day. The witch had left them. Charlie had not yet come over. The sound of cups and dishes against the massive tables was soothing. He had come to associate it with pleasant breakfasts together.

Mike only had a blurry memory of stumbling into the building last night, high on life, hazy, and the dwarfs still remaining in town were so noisy that he couldn’t even hear his own thought. In this tranquil morning it was as though the last night became real. For a while it felt like a dream, but when the memory was still there after some hours of sleep and his body and mind had been relieved from the tension which he had hosted for so long, he became assured that it truly happened. His chest felt lighter with less to carry inside of it.

”Good morning, Mike,” Eleven said, who spotted him first.

”’morning.”

There was a torpidity lingering in the air, a gentle languidness. They only spoke in short, aimless sentences. No dramatic reactions or gestures, just rhythmic stirring in coffee cups, slow chewing and lots of silence.

Mike supposed the rest had stayed up late yesterday too but he didn’t make any remarks about it, unsure of what he would say if they returned the question and asked him where he went when he left the restaurant in the barn. Mike didn’t need to know, neither did they. Nobody seemed to think twice about that Steve stayed with Lucas and Dustin while Mike stayed with Will, Max and Eleven. The girls had stumbled in after Mike had already fallen asleep and he didn’t even see them when he woke up. Nancy, though he wasn’t sure, seemed to have slept on the bench outside. He understood that by subtile hints in between the lines.

Will was peering out the window, elbow on the table, chin in his palm. The sun was already half-way to the highest point of the sky, still not offering much heat but a lovely light. A shard of golden honey was created in Will’s green eyes as the rays beamed in through the glass. When Mike sat down at the opposite end of the table, next to Max and Steve, Will didn’t even look his way. It didn’t worry him. Despite his absent gaze, Will had an unguarded ambience around him and he seemed to be at absolute peace. Mike wondered if Will was aware that he was daydreaming even when living in his daydream.

Mike filled his plate with the dishes he already knew he liked. Nancy passed him the sausages. She mumbled something about Holly and Mike nodded without even hearing what she had said. Holly was doing fine, he was confident about that. Now he just wanted to think about breakfast. Thinking about going back to college and live off instant noodles, cereal and food stolen from the commons was grim to think about after enjoying so much yummy food.

”Anybody else who feels like the witch did some sort of magic on us yesterday?” Lucas asked, stretching his neck by tilting his head to each side. The clearness of his voice stood out in the symphony of mumbles. His eyes looked grainy and tired, but he was smiling to himself.

”Most definitely, yes,” Dustin agreed.

”It was great though,” Max said. She served herself some of that suspicious goo from the pan. There was barely any of it left so perhaps Mike was just being ridiculous for drawing the conclusion that it was gross based off the appearance. ”It doesn’t feel like a hang over right now, it’s more like — ” she hesitated.

” — waking up from a dream,” Lucas finished.

”Exactly! A very intense dream. I know I was conscious the whole evening and I only had like one of those beers, which weren't even that good in my opinion, but when I woke up this morning I felt so lost.”

”It took us forever to even remember where we were!” Eleven giggled.

Mike listened, amused. Yeah, perhaps there was some actual magic involved yesterday. If so, he wanted to thank that witch for whatever she did. But at the same time he recalled being so sober, so sensible, that he didn’t feel like he was under the influence of anything but the moment itself. 

And when Eleven and Max started rambling about how they convinced some sailors to let them come onboard only threw themselves over the railing, Mike was assured that he had not been under the same spell. The swimming must had taken place after Will and Mike had already left because he couldn’t remember ever hearing them splashing around, jumping from the ships. Steve also muttered something about having a full-on conversation with a goat on his way back to Tinkerbell’s. It seemed like the night had been a memorable experience for all of them.

Will finally pulled his eyes away from the window, turning his head in Mike’s direction. Their eyes met for a moment, long enough to say everything they needed to say: ’I don’t regret it.’ Will stifled a smile, yielded away. Mike took a bite of his sandwich to not seem suspicious, but unable to feel the effusive simmering inside.

He had to apologize to every person he had ever rolled his eyes at for being cheesy and cliché. Those statements had derived from frustration and jealousy and spite, but now he understood. It was really that nice to love someone who loved you back. It was difficult not to think cheesy things and the yearning for physical contact was almost irresistible to cave in to now that he knew what it felt like and there was no wall between them. Good thing both of them had a life time of practice when it came to holding their feelings back, or else they would easily have turned into one of those couples that couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.

What made Mike queasy was the persistent issue of leaving. That was his only concern.

He didn’t want to ruin what he finally had. The gate in the castle was still not finished and he had not yet found out where the second closest gate was, but the biggest problem was how to convince everyone — himself included — that it was time to head back to the mundane world. He didn’t even want to think about having to tell Holly to give up her adventure to go back to Hawkins middle school to sit in a classroom all day, everyday, knowing that there was fun things to do out there in the world that she didn’t get to participate in. It felt like letting himself down, even.

One after the other they went back upstairs after breakfast to get themselves ready for the day, which had also become a part of the routine. Mike intentionally dwelled behind. Will was about to head upstairs, but caught Mike’s eye for a second and turned around again. He walked down the only two steps he had walked up.

”Hi,” he said, the first word he had spoken to Mike directly since whispering a ’good night’ into his chest. He had a playful, almost sassy grin on his face. He stood a little bit too close for it to mean nothing, but not close enough to mean anything either. Mike liked that Will still had to look up, being a couple of inches shorter. 

”Hi,” Mike replied.

The silence was tentative and teasing, far from quiet. Mike held his arm by the elbow, scratched it nervously. He could remember what it felt like when Will clawed at his skin, it flashed in his mind every now and then. It made him even more nervous. Will had a bruise on his body that wasn’t actually a bruise. It was just barely perceivable near the neckline of his shirt, but extremely distracting. Mike’s eyes kept finding their way back to it, feeling tingly knowing that he had left a sign on Will’s body, a tiny reminder that it happened. Nobody else seemed to notice that the phony bruise wasn’t there before, or else they did notice but choose to not mention it, which wouldn’t be surprising since the hickey didn’t quite look like the partially faded bruises.

”Will, we have to decide what to do next,” he said, swallowing.

”Yeah, I know.”

”Want to go outside?”

***

They sat on the bench outside. Mike stretched his legs out in front of him, leaned against the facade behind him. Out on the lake another ship was getting ready to leave. The crew was busy preparing the sails, the merchants hoisted their products onboard using ropes, a young woman patrolled around with a checklist, yelling orders and making sure everything was ready. Hogsheads were lined up by the dozens.

Will sighed, tilted his head back, let the sun warm his face. A breeze made his hair flutter. He had his hands resting on his lap. If Mike hadn’t known better, he would have thought that they were just going to sit here and enjoy the morning, but he knew that behind Will’s relaxed countenance he was pondering as much as he was. That was one thing Mike knew, that just because Will seemed untroubled it didn’t mean that he actually was.

”So, what do you reckon?” Mike asked him.

”I don’t know.” Will opened one eye, squinted towards him. ”Truthfully, I don’t. I know that I want to stay here, but I know that I’m not supposed to. I’m happy here. That’s all.”

”You have been through things, you deserve to be happy.”

”I’d like to think that too.”

”But — ” Mike hated that there was such a thing as a ’but’ in this situation, the word itself tasted repulsively on his tongue ” — I think we have to go back. I don’t mean to say that you should leave this place forever, but there’s a world out there that’s waiting for you to return. And despite everything, don’t you think that’s the world you really belong in?”

”I’m not sure anymore. Sometimes I just feel like the whole ’belonging’ thing is ridiculous. I mean, who gets to decide where people belong? Isn’t belonging just a feeling when it all comes down to it? You belong wherever you feel at home. Formal documents, citizenships, memberships, registers and all of that are just authorities’ attempts to make feelings physical. It all starts with a feeling of longing and belonging.”

Will crossed one leg over the other. His posture looked rather stiff and his way of speaking unnaturally mechanic. Or perhaps it wasn’t mechanic, but it was emotionless and tart in a way that sounded wrong when spoken with his voice.

”Isn’t that a bit simplified?” Mike was wary with his way of putting this.

He didn’t want to insult Will’s perception, but at the same time someone needed to question it. Mike agreed to a certain extent, but he didn’t know just how deep into this cryptic outlook Will had drifted and for how long the cardinal distaste for the real world had brewed inside him. It frightened him a bit, not knowing where it would end, if there even was an end to it.

”Sure, it is,” Will shrugged. ”But there’s things I have to finish here before I can leave. You could go ahead and return earlier if you’d like. I’ll catch up once I’m done.”

”We’re not leaving you here, no way.” Mike shook his head. ”Or rather, I’m not leaving you here. I don’t know about the rest of them, but I’m sure they like it here a lot. I’m just afraid Dustin will get kicked out of Yale and Lucas already lost his job, Steve’s got a wife who’s waiting for him… I don’t have much to lose, I really don’t mind.”

Will smiled. He stretched his hand out and tousled Mike’s hair. Mike scrunched his nose and peered through the messy strands falling down his face. For a moment it looked like Will was going to kiss him on the cheek, he started leaning in, but didn’t. Instead he placed his forehead on Mike’s shoulder, the top of his head against his neck.

”Your shoulder is bony, Mike,” he complained.

”Sorry about that,” he chuckling.

Will lifted his head off the shoulder, returned to the same position as before. He watched a hogshead getting rolled onboard using a temporary bridge from the ground to the railing. It almost rolled over the edge a couple of times, some poor boy had to apologize every two seconds as he struggled with the heavy barrel. Half of the items waiting to be brought onboard appeared to be alcohols while food, equipment and trading products made up the rest.

”They drink a lot,” Mike noted.

”Who? The merchants?”

”Well, everyone, sort of. There’s more alcohol flowing at Tinkerbell’s than at any party I’ve ever been invited to for sure. They were not exactly sober at the barn yesterday either. And those dwarfs probably have more alcohol than blood in their veins. It’s just something I’ve noticed, I don’t know what my point is.”

Will lowered his gaze. He fiddled with his hands, traced at the seams of the patch on his knee with his finger tips, scratched with his nails over the fabric, held one hand over the other, then vice versa. Mike regretted ever mentioning it.

”Sorry, I shouldn’t have —”

”It’s alright,” Will cut him off. ”I’m aware, you’re not the first one who has mentioned that there’s a lot of alcoholics around here. It’s unfortunate but I guess it makes sense. I’d like to think that I’ve left all of that behind, that it doesn’t affect me anymore, but it’s apparently still a part of me and here the visions come to life again.”

”But most things are very beautiful and friendly here,” Mike reminded him, rubbing his shoulder gently. Will smiled a little, nodded.

”Yes, that’s true,” he said.

Thinking about it, Will was very brave for letting them stay in his world — in his head — like this. Sure, some of the things were just creatures from fantasy novels and D&D, but every now and then Mike became very aware that it truly was Will’s world, this place, it was his mind which had created the things they saw. The vast amount of fairies for instance, was it a coincidence? And the invisible children? Lucas surely had a point when he brought up that all those things meant something in one way or another. And now that Mike thought about it, it was probably not a coincidence that everyone around in this dimension expressed so much appreciation and respect for Will, always listened to him when he spoke and thanked him for his efforts. This realizing made Mike twitch with guilt.

”I’m afraid I’ll lose all of this,” Will said at last, quietly, no more than a whisper. He lifted his eyes, looked around him. There was something pulling in his face. It looked like he had to actively fight back against it. ”If I leave, who’s going to look after everyone? What if the dark creatures from the Upside Down invade while I’m gone, so when I come back there’s nothing left of this? Everything destroyed, burned, lifeless, gloomy…? They’re coming, everyone knows that, and I’m not yet sure how I’m supposed to fight back. I can’t just leave.”

”Can’t you create something that can fight back while you’re gone?”

”I don’t know. It’s hard to create something that’s meant to fight against something I have no idea what it is, and the thing with the Upside Down is that it’s so always much worse than I’m able to imagine.”

Mike couldn’t argue with that. He thought he had seen a lot, but he knew there was more to the dimension that the fragments he had witnessed. What he had encountered so far were only the things that had groveled into Hawkins, but there was obviously more to it, those creatures had derived from some other place that Will and Eleven knew better than anybody else and not even the two of them had more than an inkling of the full extent of the dimension. The clues they had gathered only seemed to leave them in stupefaction, not offering any clarity.

”But…” Mike itched his cheek, pulled his mouth a little to the side. He desperately tried to think of something to say, but in the end he fell silent. His hand fell to his lap.

”They’re counting on me,” Will continued.

Mike wasn’t even sure if he spoke to him or himself. He watched the sailors roll another hogshead onboard, this time with less struggling, but it seemed like it wasn’t just the sailors he was watching. His eyes were abounding with melancholy, his mouth just slightly open. Mike wished he knew what he was thinking, he could only guess.

”They’re counting on you because you want them to, isn’t it so?” Mike asked.

He wasn’t sure if Will had even heard him. He didn’t get any response at all, neither verbally nor physically. Will’s posture made him look like he was crumbling. He still traced the fabric path on his knee, but now with an incongruous determination, almost frantically. His fingers look like a cramping spider’s legs. His eyes appeared to be shaky, but perhaps they were just very, very still while the rest of his body trembling.

”Will…?” Mike called.

”What am I supposed to do?” Will wailed. ”I don’t know what to do.”

”You need to stop thinking that you’re responsible for all of this, that’s a good start.” Mike felt like a cheesy life coach. The words came out wrong and the forced positivity wouldn’t help, but he meant it. He just regretted phrasing it like that. He floundered for a better way to say it but seeing Will’s anguish made his brain go blank. ”Will, I mean, it’s… I’m sorry. Look, I just —”

”But I am responsible for all of this!” he exclaimed, putting a hand to his forehead. ”I created all of this and now I don’t know what to do with it! I can’t take responsibility for an entire world, so can you tell me how I could be so stupid that I created one?”

”Creating this wasn’t a mistake, please don’t think that,” Mike pleaded, ”It’s amazing. We just need to figure something out, what to do from here. It’s going to be okay.”

”Do you have any idea what we’re up against here, Mike?”

Will snapped out of the trance, turned to look at him. His eyes were bewildered, not blinking anywhere near as frequently as they were supposed to. For a moment he looked like when he was possessed by the Mind-flayer, but then Mike realized that it wasn’t possession that made him like that, it was fear, the raw sort of fright that surpassed daily anxieties, the one that kicked in when you knew that it wasn’t just in your head but a real threat that loomed ahead of you.

”I’m afraid not,” he admitted. ”But there is something I don’t quite understand… If you created this, wouldn’t you be able to un-create it until the danger’s over and then create it again?”

”I don’t know. I’ve never tried. I don’t think it’s that simple though.” Will took a couple of deep breaths, closed his eyes. When he opened them again he looked a bit calmer, but the uncertainty made his voice rickety as he told,

”This is only a theory, so don’t take this too seriously now, it’s just been on my mind for a while… I’ve been thinking about the Upside Down a lot, tried to figure it out. There’s so much that doesn’t’ make sense. But I keep wondering if someone else, someone like me, created the Upside Down using their imagination at some point. I just don’t understand where else it came from. And I wonder how many dimensions there really are out there. I know of three, but why would there only be three? Why couldn’t it be a million? We know so little, so, so little.”

Dustin and Lucas came out of the doors, talking loudly about something that made them chortle. When they spotted Mike and Will on the bench, they clammed up. For a moment they seemed unsure of whether to go back inside, walk in a different direction or join them. Will chuckled and beckoned for them to come take a seat. He looked less distressed now. Lucas sat down directly on the grass rather than squeezing himself in with the other three on the bench.

”So, what’s up?” he said.

”Oh, I wish I knew,” Will shrugged, shook his head. ”I’m in a pinch.”

”Yeah?”

Mike helped Will retell what they had talked about. Dustin and Lucas hummed thoughtfully, nodded, agreed, but didn’t interrupt until they were done. Dustin already had his eyes closed and the brain-machine working inside the skull. Lucas was picking grass aimlessly, brows furrowed. 

Mike had happy to have them here. It eased the pressure he had on his own shoulders to fix things, which obviously hadn’t worked very well so far. Things rarely got as deep when the four of them were together, it was as though the dynamic changed naturally when their personalities welded together. It wasn’t because they weren’t close enough to discuss deep topics, but it was as if they found a way out of the troublesome faster together instead of dwelling at the same spot for too long.

”Alright,” Dustin said, finally opening his eyes, clapping his hands together. ”It seems like there’s three dimensions so far, correct? And it’s sort of heaven, hell and the reality in between? And the issue is that the hell dimension is bleeding into the other two?”

”Yep,” Will nodded.

”And what if that’s how it’s supposed to be?” Dustin presented, opening his hands, palms up like he was offering them something. He leaned against the facade behind him. He didn’t seem as assured as Mike had expected him to, his thesis sounded more like a genuine question than a suggestion.

”You mean the Upside Down is supposed to invade?” Lucas raised a skeptical eyebrow.

”I don’t know but assuming that the world is made up by science, it sort of makes sense. The more imbalanced an atom is, the more prone it is to attach itself to another atom to create something new, you know what I mean?” Dustin gestured pedagogically with his hands like a teacher. ”I just reckon that perhaps these extremes are just the result of an imbalance or something. The Upside Down and this dimension, the Downside Up or whatever we’re supposed to call it, are actually meant to be one and the same.”

It took a while to assimilate this. Mike envisioned the atoms mr Clarke had told them about, in fact, Dustin had just straight up copied his gestures to explain. Positively charged, negatively charged, neutral. Mike hadn’t studied much science in college, but his nerdy childhood had given him a decent understanding. Dustin waited patiently, looking at each one of them.

”I mean, I can’t say that you’re wrong — ” Lucas had a deep crease across his forehead ” — but I don’t really understand how a whole dimension could go by the same laws as an atom. Does it really work like that?”

”I literally said that I don’t know, Lucas, this was just an idea,” Dustin said, running a hand through his curls. ”I don’t mean that we should just welcome the Upside Down with open arms and have lunch with the demogorgon because it’s ’supposed to be that way’, that would probably be a terrible idea and we’d end up being the lunch, but… yeah. I don’t know. It was just an idea.”

”I think it’s a very interesting idea,” Will said earnestly, nodding slowly.

He seemed about to say something more but didn’t. He looked into the empty air in front of him, one leg over the other, foot dangling as though it had a life of its own. The corners of his mouth were pulled ever so slightly upwards. Mike was unsure of what that meant but it was great to see.

”But you mean that you think a person created the Upside Down just like you created this? Honestly, I still can’t understand how you made this. How did your thoughts translate into actual things? I mean —” Lucas pulled a handful of grass from the ground, held it in front of him for a moment before letting the breeze swirl it away, ” — This is real! How is this possible? And why?”

”We’ll rot in our graves before we understand why,” Mike asserted shrewdly, stretching his arms in front of him. His muscles were aching and he knew why. It reminded him at the most inappropriate times. He relaxed and leaned back, feeling everyone’s eyes on him. He continued, ”And this is probably not the best time to figure out how either. First and foremost we have to understand what’s happening, hands on, like ’what’s actually going on here in this moment’, you know? And we need to decide what to do. All I know is that mrs Byers would like to have her son back and time’s not waiting for us in our dimension. While we’re here the rest of our world’s proceeding without us. It will get complicated if we stay here for much longer.”

”Right,” Dustin agreed right away. ”Honestly, it’ll be difficult to catch up already. I haven’t even thought about school for like a month. I don’t even know I’ll be able to finish those courses.”

”I’m unemployed! Yay!” Lucas wavered in the air like some sort of stiff dancing. His cheerful tone was too happy to be genuine, it had to be ironic to some degree, but Mike could tell it wasn’t entirely forced either. Lucas lay down in the grass, limbs sprawled out, sun in his face, looking about as content as one could with life. Mike laughed, shaking his head. Couldn’t he even pretend to care about his job?

”So, what am I supposed to do then?” Will asked, matter-of-factly. He rubbed his forehead. ”I told you already, I can’t leave this place until I know they’re safe. It’s my responsibility now.”

”Isn’t this place only real as long as you want it to be?” Dustin inquired. Before Will could even answer the first question he had rephrased it, ”Do you want it to be real?”

Will hesitated, clicked with his tongue. Mike didn’t know what made him do so, since he obviously loved his creation and loved that it was real. He loved it so much and thought it was real enough to replace the dimension which he came from — if the mundane world was actually the dimension which he originally came from. Normal human beings don’t normally have superpowers that can create things. What if Will wasn’t even human originally? This was a thought that struck Mike like a bucket of freezing water.

”I want it to be real, but I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Will said at last.

”But if something is alive, then it can and will also die, isn’t that the literal definition?” Lucas said, ”I think mr Clarke said that once. I thought it was really cool because I’ve never heard anyone define the word ’life’ before, at least not like that. My point is really just that if you want everything here to be real, you have to accept that it won’t be around forever in the same consistent shape.”

”Does something have to be alive in order to be real though?” Dustin’s eyes lit up like lightbulbs as he threw the question into the open.

Before anybody else had the time to figure out an answer, he was rambling about his own perspective on the matter and Lucas soon contributed with a trippy theory which included the potential that nothing was alive, nothing was real, and life was just a hallucination of some sort. Will then started telling them about Eastern spirituality and philosophy, mentioning reincarnation, the belief that bodies are only borrowed as a way to store the soul temporarily and the idea suggestion that life is just the stage which comes before what is actually reality and dying hence means liberation. They discussed about this wildly and eagerly for a long while, completely neglecting the topic which had they led them to this point.

”This is getting too philosophic!” Mike bursted eventually, gesturing with his hands for them to stop, laughing.

”This is an existential matter, Mike! It’s relevant to ask ourselves these questions!” Dustin snapped back. He was so worked up and absorbed by this discussion that he had started to resemble the stereotype of a crazy genius, his curls messy and eyes shut wide open, a bit out of breath.

”Okay, then let me answer your original question real quick — of course something can be real even if it’s not alive! Do you think cars are alive? Do you think cars are real?” he sassed, head titling back and fourth. ”I think you need to go back to school, Dustybun! Your brain is turning into slush! Which flavor do you want? Strawberry? Chocolate?”

”Shut up, Wheeler!” Dustin rolled his eyes. ”I want vanilla though, if I get to choose.”

”Guys, we’re getting nowhere!” Will chuckled, shaking his head.

They pulled themself together and tried to be focus on what was truly important and what wasn’t. In the end it was apparent that Will had never tried to make his creation unreal, which was not the same thing as making it uncreated. As much as Mike enjoyed the Downside Up, he felt little empathy for the people and creatures living in it, at least in comparison to how much he cared about Will, himself and his other friends who were heading for inevitable trouble at an alarming pace by prioritizing this imaginary world above themselves. Was it selfish? Yes, probably a little, but Mike was okay with that.

Since when was it their responsibility to save the whole world all the time, anyway?

***

Eleven and Max joined them a while later. They slumped down in the grass next to Lucas, who still looked like he was a sunbathing tourist more than someone who was trying to save the world. Eleven hummed and nodded a lot as they told her about their ideas. Truthfully, there wasn’t a lot to recap since they had made very little progression since they started the discussion.

”You mean that someone else created the Upside Down?” she asked.

”It makes sense to assume that,” was Will’s vague answer.

”Do you think the person who created the Upside Down is evil?”

”Not necessarily.” Will shook his head. ”I don’t know if you agree with this, but I felt like the Upside Down was like an abandoned place that had been left to rot. It was like a derelict version of the human world. All the buildings looked like nobody had cared for them in ages, the woodlands were dying and I guess the creatures seemed sort of… malnourished? It’s probably not the right word for it, I know, but you know what I mean. They look like they haven’t been fed in a long time.”

”Could that be why they came to our dimension?” Max suggested.

Eleven nodded. She had that impassive expression on her face. Mike had noticed how her body language changed whenever someone mentioned the past which she was no longer intertwined with. It was like hearing certain words threw her right back several years, made her Eleven again and not Jane. Thinking about it, Mike hadn’t even noticed how he had started to think of her as Eleven. For how long had he been doing that? Did anybody else notice?

”The creator of the Upside Down left them to die,” she said, slowly as though she was thinking while she spoke, making sure that every word came out right. ”And now the monsters want to take back what they lost. They want the nice things back. That’s why they’re invading this dimension.”

”Wait, no —” Will interrupted, brusquely. Then he swallowed, clasped his hands together on his lap. His knuckles went white in a matter of second. With a perfectly calm voice he elevated, ”That’s a strange way to phrase it. This dimension isn’t what the Upside Down lost, this is its own dimension and it just happens to be much nicer than the Upside Down and perhaps that’s why they want it for themselves. But it’s not like they’re reclaiming anything that was originally theirs.”

”But you’re the one who creates the nice things. Doesn’t it make sense to think that they’re invading this dimension because they want you?”

”Perhaps so. But I don’t have anything to do with the Upside Down itself and I certainly did not create it and then abandon it,” Will declared curtly. This sternness didn’t suit his face.

”Maybe you didn’t create the Upside Down, but it seems unlikely to me that the demogorgon kidnapped you by coincidence that night in November.”

Eleven curled up in a ball, warms wrapped around her knees. A hair strand fell down her forehead, between her eyes. She blew a puff of air upwards to make it move, but it fell back at the same spot again. The fact that Will looked like he was about to blow up into pieces didn’t seem to reach her consciousness at all. His eyes flickered around alarmingly. Mike didn’t understand this reaction at all, but it gave him a queasy feeling in his guts.

”And the fact that it was a demogorgon, a monster from your favorite game, is also a bit strange, isn't it?” she continued.

”What…?” Will wheezed, staring at her as if he truly could not believe what she was suggesting, appalled and hurt in a way that, though it was a radical idea, Mike found to be incongruous. Will also looked increasingly sweaty, as if his clothes stuck to his body differently and his face had a flushed tone which it normally had when very strained.

”I don’t know,” Eleven shrugged. She picked a flower and played with it between her fingers. ”It was just a thing I’ve thought about.”

”She does have a point,” Dustin noted. His posture had deflated, his face had lost its color.

Mike’s attention wandered to and fro between his friends. Everyone displayed various degrees of distressed, except for Eleven who didn’t seem to think that this was a revolutionary proposal in any way. Will was by far in the worst state. When Mike reached out to comfort him, he simply hurled himself off the bench.

He hugged himself in a cramp-like way, fingers digging into his shirt. He looked at the rest of them like they were strangers to him. Mike immediately hurried over to stop him before he’d run away, which he knew was coming. Will was a runner. It was apparent at this point. But where else would he run if it was himself he was so badly afraid of? And Will didn’t even need to explain, didn’t even need to say anything. Even without words, he was expressive, he told them so much by not saying anything at all.

”It’s okay, Will,” Mike consoled. ”It doesn’t matter.”

Will didn’t pull his hand back when he reached for it. He didn’t wrench away when Mike wrapped his arm around his shoulders instead, like he used to do when they were younger. Somehow, and he wasn’t even sure himself how he did it, he managed to get Will to sit down on the grass. He wasn’t crying, but his teeth chattered frantically and his eyes wouldn’t stop flickering around. Lucas crawled over, put a hand on his arm. At this point Eleven had realized the emergency and she kept apologizing for saying it.

”I didn’t mean it, Will! I’m sorry! You know I wouldn’t blame you! It was just a thought!” she squeaked.

But her question wasn’t the issue, the issue was the truth behind it that had dawned upon them, a truth which seemed to have dawned on Will in the past already. Perhaps shut away into the far back of his consciousness, like Mike had locked the truth away in a safe closet, Will seemed to have thought it was gone. Now it was set free, and from the deep depths it resurfaced, and like a powerful wave it washed ashore.

”I’m sorry, guys.” Will’s eyes were flooded when he removed his hands from his face. They were shut wide open and didn’t really looked like they were crying, but streams of tears ran down his face. Mike kissed the top of his head, nuzzled his nose into the hair. Will kept rambling anyway. ”I’m so, so sorry. I made a mess. You shouldn’t have to deal with all of this. It’s my fault, the whole thing, from the very start. I’ll fix it somehow, I promise.”

”Shh, don’t give us that!” Dustin said, finger to his lips. ”We’re in this together, alright?”

”Yeah, and we do enjoy a good adventure, you know that already,” Max added, tucking a hair strand behind her ear. Her skin was almost blinding in this light and her hair was so vibrant it looked like someone had filled it in with various orange felt-tips. Her shoes were placed next to her, her feet nuzzled into the grass. She honestly seems to love every minute here, even when they were troubled. ”I don’t think we were meant to just study, get a degree and work for the rest of our lives, you know? Messy people like mess. Mess is good.”

They kept telling Will encouraging facts and anecdotes until he had calmed down. Mike could feel his muscles ease up, his body posture less petrified. He eventually took his arm away and Will remained seated on the grass, making to attempts to run anywhere. He now looked more embarrassed than frightened, his head hanging low and evasive gaze.

The ship was ready to leave. The sailors had climbed onboard, stationed at their positions. Only the few people who were going to detach the mooring from the trees at shore reminded on the ground. Mike thought the departure was fascinating, he couldn’t stop looking. Just like yesterday, the sails were raised. Huge, white fabrics were pulled at by the winds. They created a flapping sound as the wires hit against the masts.

A wind created a momentum so powerful that it made the ship creak. It was building up rapidly, until the whole ship started moving forward, forward, forward and then it lifted. The massive boat seemed weightless as it rose to the skies. Mike shielded his eyes from the sun to see it. Even Will looked up. It was breathtaking to witness. For a moment they seemed to forget altogether everything that had anything to do with dimensions and dilemmas.

Once the ship was out of sight there was scarcely anything nearby which could distract them anymore. The market square was empty aside from the people crossing it on their way to other destinations. The silence left behind the merchants and the dwarfs was unfamiliar at this point. Mike actually missed the chaotic activity, the yelling and raucous laughter. That made him remember something.

”You told us that you created everything but it didn’t always turn out the way you wanted it to, right?” he started, ”You never made the dwarfs sailors, they just started sailing because they felt like it, right? That’s what you said.”

”Yes, it’s a bit uncertain. Most of the time it works out pretty well, but not always.”

”And once the creation comes to life, you technically have no control over it?”

”It varies.” Will dried his face. Flushed streaks had been left over his cheeks. They wouldn’t go away if when he wiped the remaining traces of tears. He had pulled himself together, his voice steadier and his eyes less hectic. ”I can usually nudge things in the direction that I want them to go, but I can’t make it happen with a finger snap.”

Mike hummed. There was something torpid, impassive about the ambience now. Mike supposed they had run out of feelings after the sudden burst. He felt pretty exhausted himself as well. His heart rate was still in the process of slowing itself down. It felt like if you could say anything in this moment and nobody would freak out about it. The realization that Will most likely created the Upside Down made everything else appear insignificant in comparison.

”Then it’s not unthinkable that you originally created something nice but then the life you created took a drastic turn in a different direction — ” Eleven said absently, ” — and that’s what made the Upside Down the hell it is today. So, it’s not your fault. You didn’t create it that way.”

”I guess…” Will mumbled. "The thing is that I don't remember it. I only remember being a child in Hawkins. I remember mom and Jonathan and dad. Nothing seemed out of place. I didn't suspect a thing. I must have done it when I was just a baby, or else my memory of it got deleted."

"The lab -" Eleven began, but then she stopped.

Charlie’s blond head popped out of the foliage, following the path which Mike had traveled with the wagon the day he arrived. He had a straw in his mouth, a carefree gait, hands in his pockets and a little backpack hanging off one shoulder. He had a striking resemblance to Huckleberry Finn, which was a character Mike knew that Will used to like a lot when they read the novel in school.

Mike felt a sudden discomfort upon seeing him, knowing that Charlie had done nothing wrong, knowing that he was the one who was supposed to feel guilty. He tried to tell himself that Charlie was an imagination, a fictional character brought to life, and not a human person by the same standards as himself, but it was difficult to think of him as anything else. Charlie raised a hand and cheered at them from afar and then again when when came closer. When Mike slapped his hand in that brotherly way as though they had been friends for years, and he felt actual skin against his own, how could perceive Charlie as anything but real?

Mike swallowed nervously, avoided making eye-contact at all costs. Will appeared to very calm about the whole deal. Mike kept stealing glances every now and then but the one person Mike avoided more than Charlie, was Will. Perhaps that made the whole situation more awkward? Mike didn’t know how he was supposed to act. In this moment he was genuinely astonished by how people could steal other people's partners as if it wasn’t a big deal, just a thing they did on the regular because they felt like it or whatever. Mike only felt nauseous. And oddly enough, perhaps Will’s reveal was the very reason why this suddenly captivated his brain like this? Because since it wasn’t big deal in comparison, it was a lot easier to think about and hence Mike focused on it as though it was the only thing that mattered for a split moment, clung on to it for comfort although it still made him uncomfortable but not as uncomfortable as thinking that Will had created not one, but two dimensions.

Charlie sat down on the grass amid them, looking at them curiously. The straw swayed gently as he played with it between his lips, the backpack lay next to him. A fairy who had rode along, sitting on top of the bag, had lay down and her wings folded around her like a blanket. One wing papered to be damaged. Eleven watched it with great interested as its tiny chest rose and sank with the rhythmic breathing.

”Everything alright?” Charlie asked.

”It’s just the usual,” Will replied drowsily, rubbing his eyes.

”Oh, I see.”

Did Charlie love Will? Would he get hurt if he knew? Mike found himself awfully distracted. He had started to pull grass out of the ground compulsively. He was lucky Lucas did the same thing or else it would have looked suspicious. Mike’s hatred for Charlie had been intense but short-lived, he now considered Charlie one of his own friends. He didn’t want to mess it up, but he already had.

”Any news today?” Will sighed. ”I haven’t checked.”

”No, not as far as I know. The gnomes are still upset, that’s all,” Charlie told.

”There’s always upset. So whiny. Nothing new, then.”

Charlie agreed. They had to tell the others about how the gnomes complained about literally everything. In the summer it was too hot, in the winter it was too cold, if people left them alone they felt excluded, if they received visitors they felt attacked. It was a light-hearted anecdote which eased the mood up. Mike had to trust Will’s intuition. If he thought it was okay, then it probably was. Truthfully, Mike had never heard anyone confirm that Will and Charlie were a thing, it was just the way they acted around each other that game Mike the impression. But then again, what the hell did Mike know of relationships?

”Seriously though, if the gnomes got attacked by the Upside Down, it’s pretty alarming.” Dustin scratched his scalp, troubled crease between his brows. ”It means that somehow they’ve figured out a way to break into this world already.”

”That’s right. That’s why we’re worried.”

”Okay, but if the monsters are invading the Downside Up because they want Will, then the most efficient way to protect this dimension would be to get Will out of here, wouldn’t it?” Max said. Her face got scrunched as she squinted her eyes to peer in the sun.

”Yes, I guess.” Will’s vacant voice was heartbreaking in every way. He ran his hand in the grass, traced the ground with his fingertips.

”This is not a goodbye,” Mike assured. He didn’t know how he was supposed to fix it yet, but he wouldn’t let it be a goodbye, not for as long as Will didn’t want it to be. He was going to be as stubborn and annoying as he used to be, if that’s what it would take. ”We’ll be back. We’ll fix this.”

Will looked up at Charlie. Mike could tell that Will loved him, not in the way that he loved Mike, but in that caring, sweet way that one loves a dear friend, a mentor or a brother. They were partners in crime, as Will liked to call it. And with just that one look, Mike knew how much Charlie meant to Will, real or not. It seemed like he was asking for permission to go, or maybe encouragement. Will wasn’t the person who’d leave anyone behind, ever.

”If the fawn that Holly followed managed to leave through the broken gate, then I’ll be able to as well, right? I could follow you later,” Charlie said. He seemed optimistic about this. He viewed the sky as though he expected to see a gate open up above them, but it was just blue and cloudy as usual. ”The walls that keep the dimensions apart are not definite. They bleed into each other. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, we could use it to our advantage, too,” he continued.

Will nodded wistfully.

”So, where is the nearest gate that we can actually trust?” Dustin asked, clapping his hands together.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short and not very spicy, sorry about that.
> 
> I just thought I'd let you know that I probably won't publish the next chapter tomorrow (I haven't kept my one-chapter-a-day-promise anyway so meh) because I think there is some more work that needs to be done before it's ready. I hope you don't mind.
> 
> I hope you're doing OK if you're in quarantine. I suppose nobody's doing great under these circumstances, but let's take care of ourselves the best we can and hope that it'll be over soon.

”Guys, I don’t know how to say this but it would sort of had been nice if you woke me up before having a critical discussion about the future of three dimension I’ve been personally involved with lately.” Steve stomped behind them, bedhead still untamed, his shirt buttoned incorrectly. He still carried the cloth he wore as a laundry slave with him, stuffed into one of their backpacks, as a souvenir. He slapped a branch out of the way, making an offended bird shriek at him, 

”I’m not saying that you should have, I’m just saying that it would have been nice if you did choose to tell me. I don’t know why my opinion would matter, I find that it very rarely does these days, but considering that you so kindly wanted me to join you on this expedition, I have to admit that I feel pretty useless. What exactly have I contributed with so far? Where’s my purpose in this?”

He had contributed with plenty, but when asked directly, Mike couldn’t list his achievements. Nobody else seemed able to either. The lack of response made Steve throw his hands up dramatically, and so his complaining continued. It was actually soothing, weirdly enough. Perhaps that was in fact Steve’s main purpose in the team — to make them feel better.

Charlie had told them that it was a short cut to walk through the forest. Mike doubted it, but didn’t say anything. They had been walking for at least two hours already, and prior to that they had hitchhiked with a merchant who had a steam engine wagon carrier with a loading platform attached behind.

Mike wished that they could have sailed with the winds, but Will and Charlie seemed to have a different idea in mind. All he knew was that they had to make it to the gate which was located near Will’s university. By car it was manageable, but to walk through the forest all the way to North Carolina would take a while. Mike could only trust their experienced knowledge, he had to bite his tongue, tempted to question their route.

It was afternoon already. The sun stood at its highest point and it was gassing even through the leaves which shielded them from the strongest rays. Mike felt sweat emerging from his forehead. His fringe was damp and stuck to his skin annoyingly. Every time he swept it out of it face it seemed to find its way back anyway.

Charlie didn’t seem to have the same problem but whether that was because of his light colored hair or because he wasn’t human enough to struggle in the heat, Mike didn’t know. He had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows and his pants up to his knees. They took turns carrying the backpacks, which so far had seemed like nothing but a burden since the rope and the knives hadn’t even been thought about since arriving. Mike had just handed the one he had carried over to Dustin.

”Something’s throwing rocks at me!” Eleven whined. She was walking right behind Mike. He turned around to see. She glared at the bushes, craned her neck to peer into the luscious foliage. A rock hit her right between her eyes and she winced back. ”Ouch!”

Mike couldn’t stop himself from chortling out loud. Eleven flicked him off. Then he got hit by a rock on his shoulder. Now she laughed mischievously, pointing at him. Mike couldn’t see anything in the direction from where the rocks had come. Nancy stopped next to him to help searching. Then she got hit by yet another rock. They didn’t come at a furious speed, it seemed like someone was simply tossing those rocks at them to mess with them.

”It’s probably the children’s troop, that’s why we can’t see them,” Will shrugged.

He kept walking, his wand in one hand, using it as a cane. Mike glanced over his shoulder but moved forward. Eleven had picked up one of the rocks and threw it back before Nancy could stop her. Now she got overwhelmed by a flood of rocks and sticks coming her way. She shielded herself with her arms and hurried to catch up with the rest of the group. Something giggled in the bushes. Mike could swear he heard Holly’s voice amongst them. It wouldn’t be surprising if it was since the captain of her troop had promised to take her to the gate in time before they had to leave. Getting Holly to join them was impossible since she refused to make herself visible unless they let her stay with her new friends for a bit longer.

”What is the most dangerous thing around here?” Mike inquired.

The thought had struck him before. They were walking through the rural wilderness, a literal forest, where insects buzzed around and creatures chirped, yelled and sang sweet lullabies. There was actually a bird, a chunky, round-shaped bird, which sat on a branch far up in a pine and it sang a song in an Australian accent. It was one of the weirdest things Mike had ever seen. The one question on his mind was ’why?’ but it didn’t really matter as much as the amusement of seeing it. It seemed altogether like the forest was a harmless place, but Mike still kept a precarious eye on the ground in front of him to make sure he wasn’t stepping on a snake. A snake however, was still harmless in comparison to the thinks that could exist in the same world as elves and dwarfs.

”Dragons, I would say,” Will replied.

”The elves are not too friendly when they get angry either,” Charlie added.

”Not quite the same thing though. The dragons are violent by nature, the elves are conscious beings who are capable of managing their moods and making decisions based off logic and morals. The dragons are also, like, pretty big.” Will gestured with his hands in a large ratio in front of him, eyebrows raised, nodding to amplify. ”They can cause a lot of damage without even trying. The slightest whip of a tail and an entire house can get shattered into pieces.”

”And where do the dragons live?” Lucas asked, looking back over his shoulder.

”In the mountains, most of them.”

”In the Appalachian mountain range, specifically?”

”Yep. But here we call it the eastern mountain kingdom.” Will chuckled at Lucas’ distressed facial expression, he waved it off nonchalantly with his free hand. ”Don’t worry. There are dragons in certain parts of the range, living in caves, hiding most of the time. There are people who live there permanently, so it’s pretty safe. You just want to stay on good terms with the dragons. I’ve crossed the kingdom many times since it’s right in between Indiana and North Carolina and stretched all the way up in Maine. I basically live in those mountains. It’s stunning.”

”Whatever you say, captain.”

Lucas shuffled the backpack further up on his back and kept walking with steady steps. If he was anxious, he concealed it very well. He carried his head high and moved through the troublesome terrain with ease. Dustin and Steve almost fell over every two minutes, slipping and stumbling on the uneven ground, Eleven only did slightly better. Their swearing harmonized with the strange birds. In the meanwhile, Mike managed about as good as most people would in a dense, surreal forest.

Once the thought crossed Mike’s mind, he couldn’t shrug it off — slowly but surely Lucas seemed to adapt the characteristics, all the signs, that he was becoming his ranger self. The fact that he walked in front of both Will and Charlie and still seemed to know the way left Mike in awe. How else could it be possible? Rangers thrived in nature, they were brilliant navigators and could adapt to any terrain. This was not something Mike recognized as parts of Lucas’ usual persona.

This was something that entertained him. It was more interesting to trudge trough the forest while watching and noticing Lucas’ skillful manners rather than the endless vegetation, which truthfully looked all the same at this point. Mike noted the way he stepped over fallen logs, dodged under branches, twisted his torso in a sleek maneuver to pass between two trees growing closely together and his remarkable speed. Several times he had to stop and wait for the rest to catch up. He wasn’t even out of breath.

”You guys coming?” he asked.

Mike wondered if he even realized himself. If so, what if he was slowly becoming a paladin without even noticing it?

***

The woodlands finally came to an end as an open landscape revealed itself. The openness made Mike dizzy, his eyes had adapted to only seeing a limited distance ahead, having leaves draping like curtains in his vision field. He had to blink and rub his eyes to see the far distance clearly. The lack of green stung in his eyes as though he had never seen any other color in his life before.

Fields of grains lay like a checkered pattern consisting of neutral, yellow shades. There were also floral meadows which resembled the Dutch tulip plantations. Narrow paths distinguished them from one another. People were working on the fields with large brimmed hats and rustic tools. Fairies swirled around in the air amongst them, seeming to be a ubiquitous species that could be found everywhere. Some houses made out of rocks and clay were built in a dense cluster on top of a hill. It was the only hill around, everything else was flat.

”Will, what’s with the Dutch influences?” Mike asked, amused. ”First windmills and now tulips?”

On both sides of the path they walked, Mike could see that there were mostly tulips. For afar they could had been some other type of flower, but even Mike knew that they were tulips once he got closer. Charlie asked one of the field workers something in that foreign language, he bowed his head gratefully and then he translated to the rest of the group that they were free to pick as many as they wanted.

As they stopped to pick flowers every few feet, they had slowed down significantly. It was already sunset. They’d have to stay somewhere for the night, there was no way they could get to the mountains in time.

Yellow, pink, red, orange, each color separated from the other like a rainbow. He could only see some scrawny flowers of a different sort sprouting amongst them like an interloping afterthought in the ocean of tulips. It was pretty. Karen Wheeler would love to see something like it, she always crooned over the flowers in the spring. It made him a bit woeful thinking about it.

”Many great artists are Dutch,” Will said. He gave Mike a look as if to check that he understood, which he didn’t to be honest. Will started counting on his fingers, pronouncing every name with great emphasis, slowly as if he was speaking to a total dummy, ”Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Carel Fabritius, Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer… I could go on forever.”

”I’ve heard of Van Gogh and Rembrandt!” Mike was proud of this at least. Will clapped his hands slowly, until Mike pushed him.

”You know the work ’Girl with the pearl earring’, don’t you? I’m sure you’ve seen it. It’s really famous. That’s Vermeer.”

”I may have seen it but I don’t remember which one it is.”

”Alright, I’m not going to be all pretentious and annoying, it’s fine.” Will wavered with a hand in the air, smiling. He walked with a swaying, loitering gait, looking as if he wanted to swirl around but tried to keep it cool. His eyes made him appear like a bubbly doe anyway, so his attempt failed, but Mike found it delighting. ”I just really want to go to the Netherlands some day! It looks beautiful, seems like nice place to be. There’s Amsterdam, of course, but the countryside looks gorgeous as well. I suppose you shouldn’t base your impression of a country off post-cards and travel guides, they always make places look incredible — I mean, have you seen the cards you can buy at the gustation in Hawkins?”

Mike had seen them, he nodded. The pictures made Hawkins seem like a cultural place, lots of activity, lots of things to do and see, happy people who smiled all the time and a beautiful nature throughout the whole year. The snow was never that untouched and glimmering in real life. The picture must had been snapped on a very rare occasion. It was mostly grey and slushy as cars drove and people stomped around and the ploughs showed it aside into ugly piles at the side of the road. If anyone decided to visit Hawkins because they saw one of the post-cards, they’d be immensely disappointed.

”Anyway, I’d like to see the canals and the cobblestoned streets, drink coffee at a cafe — you know how European cafes always look so cosy? — go to museums and just… I don’t know. Stroll around, I guess?” Will’s cheeks flushed, his shoulders were pulled up to his ears. ”It’s a dream of mine. I have never really traveled.”

”I think you’ve traveled a whole lot more than most people!” Mike chuckled.

”But not like that!” Will stuffed his hands into his pockets. ”This… is not the same thing as going on a vacation to Europe. You know my family never had much money. It’s better now since mom got together with Jim and Jonathan’s economically independent and all, but traveling is expensive, seriously.”

”There’s a lot of people who have never been abroad though. And I heard you went on a trip to the West coast, which doesn’t sound too bad if you ask me…”

”Yeah, I know… but at school is seems like everyone’s been to so many cool places. They’ve been to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athena and whatnot. Every time we have to tell class about our inspirational sources they seem so cultivated while I’m not.” Whatever spark Will had in his eye got extinguished as he said this. For a moment he looked dejected, but then a knowing smirk spread on his lips. ”By the way, how did you know I went to the West coast? Have you talked to Lewis?”

Mike turned away to pick a tulip, dogging the question smoothly. Will just laughed.

”But it’s really not about being cultivated. I just really want to go.”

His smile faded again. He turned his face towards the open fields on the right side. While he looked happy, he also seemed a bit wistful, as though there was still something missing. Mike didn’t understand how Will could think this was lesser than the actual Netherlands, but then again, perhaps that wasn’t at all what Will was thinking about. Mike had a feeling of that he would never know for sure. He stretched the pink tulip out towards Will and swooshed it around in his face. Will frowned and yielded back, laughing again. So stupid, but so efficient. Mike felt like genius.

”Let’s go to Europe someday, then,” he said.

He didn’t know what to do with himself because something inside nudged him to wrap his arm around Will’s shoulders, take his hand or kiss him on the cheek, but with their friends so close nearby — and Charlie especially — it just didn’t seem appropriate. In lieu of better ideas, he flapped around with the tulip he had picked like an idiot until the stem became soft and soggy and the flower couldn’t stand upright anymore.

”I’ve been saving up for a while already. Some of my friends from uni are going to Europe later this year but I’m not sure I want to go with them,” Will admitted. To Mike’s inquisitive head-tilt, he answered, ”They’ve already been overseas before. I’m afraid we’re not really in synch, if you know what I mean? They’ve already seen the things I want to see. And I’d much rather go with you.”

Mike smiled at the ground. He could feel Will looking at him.

”My French’s great, you know,” Mike asserted, lifting his gaze, craning his neck proudly. ”I can say everything I need in order to get around.”

”Yeah?”

”Uh-huh. Bonjour, merci, s’il vous plaît, oui, non, baguette and voulez vous coucher avec moi.” Mike clapped his hands together. ”Voilà. European expertise. We’ll have a great time.”

Will rolled his eyes and pushed him so hard he almost fell over, into the ocean of tulips. Mike wondered why he had to be so unsmooth, it was almost like a compulsion. When Eleven turned around and asked what Mike had done to deserve getting pushed, Will said ’he’s being a Mike Wheeler’, to which she hummed understandingly and didn’t offer any sympathy for Mike.

Charlie made a new attempt at teaching Eleven how to make flower crowns. This time Max and Dustin payed attention to the instructions as well. Dustin’s brows were furrowed in deep concentration, the tip of his tongue sticking out between his lips, as he tried to knot the stems correctly. Lucas had already made a crown. It sat on top of his head, looking almost artificially perfect. He had selected tulips of different shades and filled it out with some of the other wildflowers that grew amid them.

”It’s difficult to do it with tulips since they’re quite sturdy,” Charlie assured the other three, who were struggling a bit more.

They kept walking along the path which brought them further and further away from the woodlands which they had left behind them. As they walked by the field workers lifted their hats off their heads, nodded welcomingly. When the hat brims no longer shrouded it, Mike could see that some of them had slightly pointed ears. Not quite like the elves, but somewhere in between elven and human. The oldest ones had lots of wrinkles around their eyes as though they had spent a hundred years under the gassing sun, smiling and squinting.

Unlike the forest, it was difficult to get sick of the landscape now surrounding them. The path trails were even and easy to walk, the temperature had fallen to a more pleasant degree, there were no leaves blocking the way, less humidity and obnoxious insects. Mike saw the field workers skip in surprise every now and then despite not seeing anything that had startled them, so he assumed Holly and her friends were still keeping up (which was pretty remarkable considering how far they had moved without taking any proper breaks).

***

By the time they had crossed the fields and reached a river, the sun had set. The geography and environments only coincided with the modern American map to a certain degree, but Mike assumed they had now reached the Ohio river which separated Indiana from Kentucky in the south. If so, they’d have a distance somewhat equivalent to Kentucky and Tennessee left until they reached North Carolina. It didn’t look far on a map, but to walk the whole way would take a while and considering the inconvenient mountain range located in between, it’d take even longer.

At this point his feet and knees hurt agonizingly. He dropped the backpack on the ground with a groan and sat down. Charlie was as usual unaffected and Lucas was doing pretty well, too. While the rest of the bunch felt sorry for themselves outside, they went to knock on the door to one of the huts built near the riverbank. The houses were tiny and rounded. Smoke came out of the chimneys. Someone played a melody on a violin, sitting on a dock. Lurid colored fishes peeped up from the water to hear.

”We won’t have to walk all the way tomorrow,” Will told them, massaging his lower back. ”There’s a train that departs once a week from a station just a bit further away, over there.” He gestured with his hand towards the landscape ahead of them, which looked just like the barren step they had just crossed.

”That’s great,” Max mumbled, laying down on her back with a deep sigh.

Nancy already seemed to be asleep. She lay down first thing when they stopped and she hadn’t moved since. Her hands were still wrapped around a bouquet of ailing tulips that hadn’t received any water since getting picked a couple of hours ago. The high points of her face were tinted red from the sun, her hair resembled a bird nest.

Charlie and Lucas came back after having knocked on a couple of huts. As the huts were so small, they’d have to split up for the night. Mike was too tired to even move. Will had to drag him on his feet and the way he didn’t let go of his hand right away made Mike instantly awake. It sent an electric energy through him that kept circulating in his system restlessly, craving the touch again.

Mike mechanically fed himself, chewing without really tasting the food, only nodding lamely as the hobbit they were offered to stay with spoke in broken English. They were seated around a ridiculously small table and ate with ridiculously small cutlery. Mike couldn’t even stand upright without hitting his head in the ceiling and his legs were in a strange position even when he sat down since the chair was so petite.

There were mattresses on the floor placed along the walls. As soon as they had finished the meal, they went straight to sleep. Lucas snored quietly. The hobbit blew out the candle on the table and left the three visitors to rest. Mike faintly heard her steps disappearing. He was too tired to even feel bad about occupying her hut. She seemed honored to have Will the Wise stay at her place anyway.

Half-asleep, half-awake, Mike had a faint memory of snuggling his hand towards Will’s under the blankets. He felt Will entangling their fingers, the safe warmth of his skin again his own. He fell asleep before he could properly appreciate this moment, but when he woke up the next day he had a warm, cosy feeling inside and Will greeted him with the sweetest smile when he joined him and Lucas around the tiny table for breakfast.


	17. Chapter 17

The train station was actually just a platform in the middle of nowhere without any rails attached to it. Mike felt like a fool standing straight up, looking to his left, to his right, tapping restlessly with his foot as they waited for a train which showed no signs of ever even existing in the first place. Will and Charlie had assured them that the train would come, that it didn’t run on rails like normal trains, but they had also started to look a bit uncertain as the ten-minute wait they anticipated had turned into an hour.

”Just a bit more,” Will assured.

What else could they do but trust him? It seemed to Mike like Will’s biggest concern was in fact not the train itself but what could possible had happened to the train that delayed it like this. He had already asked Charlie if he had heard any news three times already, and Charlie had answered that he had heard nothing more than that the gnomes had stopped the smoke from emerging from the hole in the ground but were still upset about the attack. No reports of new attacks, no reports of transportation delays. It seemed like it was just an unlucky coincidence that they had chosen to travel on this particular day.

”We could walk, I guess,” Lucas shrugged. ”Waiting is only wasting our time.”

”It’ll save us time once the train arrives.”

”If it arrives, will say,” he sighed.

***

The train did arrive half an hour later. It looked just like an old-fashioned steam invention, but it hovered a couple of feet above the ground and moved at an incredible speed. It came practically out of nowhere, making Mike skip back when it suddenly appeared right in front of him. The dissatisfaction caused by the delay was immediately forgiven. The only thing that mattered now was the train in front of him, hearing the whistling sound from the steam pipe and the mechanic pumping that he associated with going somewhere.

The many wagons lined up like a long tail. A woman rested her head against the window glass, sleeping. Some kids tried to crawl out of the window, which was open on ajar where they sat, while a wary teenager did his best to keep them inside the train. The wagons were of a deep sage green shade and the thin rims around each window as well as the doors had a rusty yellow color.

Charlie was the first to step onboard. He had to take a large step. No ladder or staircase was provided despite that the train floated. He turned around to take Eleven’s hand to help her get onboard. She had to hold her flower crown in place with the other. She had successfully made one as they were waiting, but the barren landscape offered only a meager range of flowers to use. Charlie told her to go inside while he helped the rest of them get onboard. Will was the last one.

”I think there’s a free compartment down there,” Will said, pointing further down the narrow isle.

The compartment consisted of padded benches on both sides of a window. Charlie opened it just slightly to let some fresh air in. The train had a dusty, old smell all around. Mike could also sense the scent of smoke like it permeated from the walls and the cushions, as though people had been smoking onboard for centuries. There was also a sticky, sweet smell which he couldn’t figure out the origin of.

The lack of trails aside, the train was very normal. It could just as well had departed from any other station. A stout conductor patrolled the isles, knocked on each compartment door and charged a fee for the tickets. Will was already ready with some coins. Mike and Steve managed to push their packing on top of the shelf above. Nancy held the last bag which didn’t fit on her lap. She had braided her hair, something she usually never did, and if Mike hadn’t known her, he would have thought that she was a local. She had that comfortable, experienced aura around her, like traveling with floating trains was something she did on the daily.

The conductor knocked on the door. He opened it before anybody else had the chance to do it for him. He had a gadget attached to a belt around his belly, a hat on top of his head. The collar of the uniform was too high for his short neck, it almost squeezed his cheeks upwards.

”Good morning!” he said with a perky, high-pitched voice which didn’t really suit his face. ”How many?”

”Eight,” Will replied. He held the coins out. ”We’re going to the eastern mountains.”

The conductor pushed a button on the gadget and a sequence of tickets rolled out of the front. He snatched them, took an investigating look, then handed them to Will. He had knowing grin on his face when he refused Will’s payment.

”You don’t have to pay, sir Byers,” he said. ”It’s our treat, you know that already.”  
”Thanks, Greg.” Will smiled humbly. He tucked the coins into his pocket again.

The conductor lifted the hat off his head, bowed quickly, and left again. The exact same greeting in the exact same tone could be heard in the compartment next door a moment later. Mike could see his frame through the glass door. He was amused by how the conductor was completely unaffected the momentum when the train started moving forward. He didn’t even flinch. Mike himself felt his body getting pressed against the seat before finding its balance again, adapted to the new pace and Steve almost fell over before he could take a seat.

”How long is the ride?” Max asked, head against the window. The breeze coming in through the gap at the top made her hair billow gently.

”Half an hour usually,” Will said.

”And then we’ll have to get across the mountains?”

”Yep.”

***

The train stopped at a station which was a lot more substantial than the scrawny platform in the middle of nowhere from which they had departed. Trains were coming in and leaving systematically. There was a crowd of people and creatures waiting at the platforms, hurrying to and fro with their bags dragging behind them, cheering and crying as one train left and another arrived. It was a magnificent theatre to watch but thinking about having to stick eight people together and actually move in the middle of the chaos was very unappealing. The excessive waves of steam which flooded the platform ever so often made it difficult to see any further than a couple of feet ahead.

Mike grabbed whoever was right in front of him as he stepped off the train. He almost fell over as he forgot how big the distance from the train to the platform was. Eleven was the one who squeaked when he pulled at the arm so it was probably hers and it seemed like she was holding onto someone else as well. Like a chain of people they slithered their way through. Once the steam dissolved again Mike could follow Charlie without too much trouble, so he let go of Eleven’s shirt sleeve. Strangely enough it seemed like people were paving way for them as they rushed through the crowd. They left the station in a matter of five minutes.

Stepping outside felt like hitting a wall. The air was humid and dense, almost so thick you could cut right through it and the clouds hung low near the ground. There appeared to be a veil of fog all around. Mike felt his shirt stick to his body, sticky from both the air condition and his own sweat, which had started to sipper out of his pores the very same second as he had gotten off the train.

Some marble stairs led them from the station to the ground level. The buildings towered above them and further away the mountains awaited. The fog made them barely perceivable, but Mike could see them as massive shadows, astonishing and intimidating at once.

They seemed to have come to a more civilized, modern community. Mike had to stifle a chuckle when a gnome walked past in a two-piece suit and a satchel bag no larger than his own wallet. Mixed scents of food, people and animals pervaded the air. There were so many sounds at once that it was impossible to distinguish them from one another. Mike was so overwhelmed and flummoxed that he remained still at the spot beneath the staircases, just staring at the circus.

”Mike!” Will called.

He waited a bit further ahead, a hand stretched out towards him. Mike hadn’t even noticed how the rest of the group had walked away and crossed the street. Peculiar vehicles, bikes and wagons strolled past. Donkeys, horses and goats walked amid them. The simmering activity made the market square by the Lover’s Lake look deserted. When Mike craned his neck he could spot Max’s hair at the other side of the road, disappearing behind a fruit stand where a woman yelled from the top of her lungs.

Mike didn’t think twice before grabbing Will’s hand, letting him lead him through the crowd. They almost collided with a horse and got yelled at by the knight who straddled the saddle, until Will glared up at her. That made her clam up immediately. Mike laughed all the way until they were caught up with the rest. Then he let Will’s hand go as by instinct. Will seemed to find this amusing, he chuckled and rolled his eyes, didn’t seem particularly offended

As they walked through the city he found himself regretting it, but he didn’t dare to reach for Will’s hand anew. If the circumstances had been different, Mike would have pondered this endlessly, but it was frankly impossible to think clearly with all the noise and movement surrounding them, which remained even as they turned right to a smaller street which ran along the back of a massive building.

”This is the bank,” Charlie told them, running a hand along the walls.

”And that over there is a school.” Will pointed at a castle-like building which loomed in the distance, with tall towers and banners draping over the facades. He smiled to himself. ”Wouldn’t it be cool if every public school was a castle? I’d dance my way to school every Monday morning. I never liked the hallways with lockers and stuff. So boring.”

”It’s because it’s convenient,” Dustin said. The humidity had made his curls fussy. No matter how much he tried to flatted them down, they fluffed up like a cloud on top of his head. He ran his fingers through it every two seconds, a vain attempt to tame it. ”It’d be a lot harder to keep a castle clean, wouldn’t it? And it’d take ages to get to your locker if your classroom was all the way at the top of that tower. Not that it wouldn’t be cool, though. I’d love it.”

”Screw convenient!” Will frowned. ”I think the main reason why students feel unmotivated it because they sense that nobody puts any actual heart and soul into what they’re doing, it’s always just about ’getting by’ and ’convenience’, just making things as quick and easy as possible, you know? Everyone seems to think that school isn’t worth your best efforts. Who’d feel encouraged to do something if the everyone has already decided that it doesn’t even matter to begin with?”

”True,” Dustin admitted, ”Perhaps you should become an architect and design schools in the future? It’s a creative job, isn’t it?”

”I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

They walked until the blocks got less dense, the buildings lower and the streets emptier. At the same rate as the city got left behind them, the closer they got to the cusp of the mountains ahead. Mike could see them clearly now. They weren’t as tall as the mountain ranges in the Himalayas, far from, but the range was massive. It ran far in every direction, there were so many peaks that were connected like a coherent chain, lined up in layers as far as the eye could see. The clouds shrouded some of the peaks.

Mike wasn’t sure if it was real, but it felt as though the ground beneath his feet vibrated ever so slightly and the intermittent echoes that came from the mountains made it seem like they were alive, with giant lungs breathing the winds in their direction while a heart was beating in the underground.

”There are stairs that will take us to the first platform, then to the second. We’ll have to walk over the peak through the terrain. Then, on the other side, there will be stairs again.” Will peered up at the mass in front of him, hands on his hips. ”It’d be great if there was a smoother way to get around it, but flying would be stupid. We don’t want to attract any unwanted attention. The dragons are territorial — if they see anything unfamiliar flying near their mountain range, they’ll attack. It’s not worth the risk.”

***

Mike offered to take Nancy’s backpack to the first platform. He didn’t realize just how far it was until he started walking up the wooden stairs, which were old and creaking, not to even mention slippery since the condense dripped from the trees. The vegetation made it difficult to see far ahead, but the scarce glimpses Mike could catch where the trees didn’t block the way let him know that it’d be a very long day and his chopstick legs wouldn’t be chopsticks anymore when he had reached the top. He already had to drag himself up by gripping the railing, breathing heavily.

”See it from the bright side — now you don’t have to hit the gym in like a year!” Lucas cheered, slapping him on the back. ”This is good for you. I swear, the more advanced the computers get, the lazier us humans will become. We were meant to move around in nature, you know!”

Mike couldn’t tell if he was mocking him or genuinely supportive. Some part of him was happy that Lucas walked with him at the back of the group, some part of him wanted to be left alone with his bitter complains. Mike could everyone’s voices speaking, but they were further ahead, almost out of sight from where he currently found himself and Lucas. Most of all he just wanted to lay down. It hadn’t even been twenty minutes yet, but to walk up steep stairs in a wild jungle was a lot worse than walking up the stairs from the basement to the kitchen — and that was toilsome enough, hence why Mike had bought himself a fridge to store food downstairs to avoid it.

”Since when are you so keen on hiking?” Mike snarled. ”Since you came a ranger or what?”

”So you’ve noticed it too?” Lucas turned around over his shoulder. His facial expression made him look like a child opening presents on Christmas. Mike couldn’t help but to smile a little at that, shrugging. Lucas kept walking up the stairs with his torso twisted towards Mike. ”It’s sort of crazy. I have no idea why this is happening and how it’s possible. Could it be that witch girl who cast a spell on us?”

”Dude, I wasn’t even there, what do I know?”

”Right, you were out somewhere banging Will, sorry, I forgot.” Lucas cracked up in a cheeky smile, rolling his eyes.

Mike didn’t even know what to reply to that so he made a mocking face in return. This only amused Lucas even more. Mike wished he would just turn his face forward and keep walking, but he insisted on walking backwards, looking at Mike way too smugly, and he refused to slip on the steps or fall over. His gracefulness was disdainful at this point.

”Seriously though, what happened? I can tell it went well because it’s not awkward anymore and you both look a lot happier.”

”See, that’s all you need to know.”

Mike brushed a fly out of his face, but then he realized that the tickling thing on his temple was just a drop of his own sweat. He shuffled the backpack further up on his back, held it in place by the straps and kept trudging forward, one step after the other. He caught a glimpse of Eleven’s and Will’s backs walking closely together behind some leaves. It motivated him to keep the pace up.

”Seems like Will is doing better,” he noted on another topic, panting. ”He’s not limping anymore.”

”And neither are you, so it wasn’t that great then, I suppose?” Lucas laughed too much at his own joke. Mike frowned, tried not to laugh although it was rather funny. Lucas self-content was the funniest part though, not the joke itself. Mike stretched his arm out to push him, but Lucas dodged it, making Mike lose his balance instead. Lucas grinned, tilted his head back and forth sassily, ”Why so moody, Mikey?”

”You’re being annoying.”

”Come on, I’m just trying to make this more fun!”

”I think it’s a lot more interesting that you’re turning into a ranger. Let’s talk about that instead.”

”I know nothing. I’ve got no juicy details to tell you.”

”Neither do I.”

”Bullshit! I know you’ve got juicy details!”

”Not to tell you.”

”Ohh!”

This imbecilic conversation got interrupted by the same, heavy, vibration that Mike had sensed at the ground level. He clung onto the railing, knelt down in order to not fall. For the first time since the climb started, Lucas slipped and fell down a step, wincing as he hit the planks. His eyes flickered around them but he didn’t move, petrified like a statue, just paying attention to the environment.

”What was that?” Mike heard Dustin say further ahead.

The distance between himself and Lucas and the rest scared him now. He didn’t want to get left behind, didn’t want to get separated in case something happened. He could still feel the vibrations. They made the stairs creak and the birds nearby leave the ground, flying away. Mike had only experienced an insubstantial earthquake before, but while the vibrations did resemble a geological activity, something made him think that this had nothing to do with that.

”There’s something in the mountains,” Mike mumbled.

The ground surrounding the staircases was covered with fallen leaves, logs, rocks and saplings. It had looked all the same, no signs of aberrations, but now he stared at the ground with horror, expecting something sudden to happen any second. He heard Steve swear in the distance. He wanted to close the gap between them, but he didn’t dare standing up. He remained hunched down with a cramping hand on the railing, anticipating the vibrations to come back, possibly even stronger ones than before.

”It’s alright, guys! Let’s go!” Will said. ”Lucas! Mike! Are you okay down there?”

”We’re alright!” Lucas yelled back.

Lucas insisted on taking the backpack so Mike wouldn’t have to carry any more weight than necessary. They hurried up the stairs. Will waited for them, leaning against the rail. Mike was relieved to see that he was also sweaty and gross, though not as out of breath as Mike was. He smiled as they kept walking, now feeling safer. Will knew what he was doing, or at least it seemed like it. He didn’t look anxious at all, but he continuously glanced in random directions. Mike didn’t ask him what he was looking for, not sure whether he wanted to know the answer or not. He was still so on edge that the birds startled him with their peaceful chirping.

***

The first platform was essentially a floor made out of the same material as the stairs with a couple of huts lined up next to each other and a grill, on which food was being prepared by a creature who in every way oddly enough resembled a vegetable or a sprout of some sort. Some other people sat at the edge of the platform, legs dangling above the short steep below. Someone who must had been enormous slept inside a hut, with legs as thick as logs and a pair of shoes as big as armchairs sticking out of the door. 

”William Byers,” the cook said when they arrived, beckoning with branch-like fingers.

Will shook his hand like an old friend, nodding politely. They were offered leaves filled with food directly from the grill. Mike had to watch his hands in order to not burn them. Charlie sat down on the deck with his wrap, so Mike did the same thing, like a spartan picnic.

As the minutes passed by and his belly got filled with some nutrition, his muscles also regained some strength. Nancy massaged her knees and Max stretched her legs, wincing as the stiff joints cracked. Nobody seemed particularly energized, not even Charlie and Lucas, but Dustin was by far in the worst condition. The sweat had left large stains on his back, and under his arms and his hair was as wet as if the rain had poured bedewed him. Mike didn’t notice it before. The last half an hour or so must have taken its toil on him.

”I’m so out of shape…” Dustin lay down on his back with a deep sigh. He held his wrap to his chest without eating it. His breathing was so heavy that he’d probably suffocate if he attempted to eat something. ”It feels like I have heavy weights around my ankles.”

”It’s because you’re a fucking dwarf, Dustin!” Steve lectured, mouth full of food. He stuck a knowing finger in the air. ”Dwarfs are better when it comes to high-intensity, not long distances! For fucks sake, even I know that! Come on, aren’t you supposed to be an expert?”

”That’s ridiculous,” he scowled, closing his eyes.

Will was the only one who remained standing. He spoke to the man gravely as he ate. Mike only understood about half of the things they said. They were speaking about the recent attacks. Mike had still not entirely understood why Will had gotten so badly bruised, but it was becoming more clear for every encounter that he had done a lot in order to protect the Downside Up. It seemed like Will had personally fought a monster off. It was also clear that he was saving his powers to do it again, hence why he had only showed them one simple magic trick so far.

If only they had known that Eleven was about to lose hers, they could have prevented it. How abominably unfair. But on the other hand, it was their only choice at the time, or at least that they knew of, but it was now apparent that there were a whole lot of things they didn’t know about at the time. There was something unsettling about it.

When Will finally sat down with the rest of them to enjoy his meal, Mike had a million questions to ask, but the only one he absolutely needed an answer to was:

”When did you discover your powers?”

”Me?” Will asked, eyebrows raised at bluntness.

”Well, who else?”

”Right. Sorry.” Will chewed and swallowed a bite, wiped the corners of his mouth. ”The truth is that I’m not sure.”

Mike threw a glance towards Eleven. She was chatting with Charlie, whom she seemed to have grown quite fond. She told him about all sorts of things, about her teachers and her hobbies and her opinion about certain things. He, who was an exceptionally good listener, payed attention closely and let her explain everything at her own pace. He also told her about himself, which she seemed eager to hear about as well. Right now she appeared to be doing just fine. Tired, but well. 

But Mike remembered what she had told him that evening when they found the gate in the lake. Her feelings of not belonging, of not being enough, of missing the person she used to be. She was better than anybody else at managing and staying strong, but she was troubled deep down, Mike knew it.

”So you didn’t know that you had them back when we fought the Mind-flayer? You know, at the mall?” Mike continued, without letting go of Eleven with his eyes.

”Not really, no.”

”’Not really’? What’s that’s supposed to mean?”

”I’m sorry, Mike, I don’t really understand where you want to get with this. What do you want me to say?”

Will looked a bit hurt. Mike had to admit that he could have used a less accusing tone. He smiled penitently, hoping that it was enough to put Will at ease. It seemed to work. This was not the time for getting heated and examining him about things he obviously already found to be burdensome. His frantic behavior just earlier when he was faced with unpleasant truths said enough and Mike didn’t doubt for a second that Will felt guilty enough already.

He just needed to know, perhaps to free himself of guilt as well. He needed to know that there was nothing more they could have done to protect Eleven, who had suffered the biggest loss. Even Billy, who was badly injured, recovered eventually and now he lived his best life in sunny California, probably not even remembering what even happened that summer, just like the rest of them had forgotten little by little.

”I’m not entirely sure what I want to hear either,” Mike confessed, sighing. ”I suppose there’s just a lot that I don’t understand.”

He was too tired to get worked up, to tired to push it. He kept eating in silence. Will watched him closely for a moment before shifting his position, and in his most pensive voice he said:

”I know I’ve caused you guys lots of trouble. I’m sorry about that. And I still haven’t explained everything, I’m aware. I don’t even know where to begin and this is not the time for it, I suppose.”

”Right,” Mike agreed, ”But can you just tell me when you first figured this out? Like, when did it all begin? You said that you don’t remember anything from your early childhood, but when did you realize that you had the power to create things like this? Was it just by accident?”

”Yes, it was pretty much by accident,” Will said thoughtfully. He just now noticed that he had everyone’s attention and all the other conversations had died for his voice to be heard. Without looking at anyone in particular he continued, ”I remember that there were random moments when I felt like I could do things with my mind. But you know, I had a wild imagination and I just bluntly assumed that I made it all up, thinking that ’it can’t be real’ and all of that. And I —”

”What did you do?” Lucas interrupted.

”I don’t know if I ever actually did it, it wasn’t my intention,” Will said blankly.

”Okay, tell me rephrase the question, what happened?”

”Well… Sometimes my drawings moved. And sometimes when dad was —” Before it became too apparent that Will didn’t know what to say next, he took a large bite of his wrap and chewed very slowly. Mike recognized the distress in his demeanor. He was about to say that he didn’t need to explain anything, but then Will swallowed and continued with a steadier voice ” — Sometimes when I was upset, the door to my bedroom wouldn’t open. It just locked itself. I never touched it, but if anyone tried to pull at it, it refused to open unless you really tried with all your strength. It was usually easy to open, you guys would know. It was only locked like that sometimes and I realized that it was only when I actually wanted the door to be.”

The vegetable-looking man threw some sticks onto the ember at the bottom of the grill. The fire welcomed the new addition with a crackling sound. He was preparing more food and he kept glancing in their direction so Mike assumed it was for them. He was still hungry, which along with the exhausting and his aching legs made it difficult to have an intense discussion. His mind kept drifting away. The sight of food being prepared distracted him. 

”Why didn’t you tell us?” he asked anyway, although he wasn’t ready to absorb the answer. This however, was perhaps a splendid reason to ask this question now since he was inept to produce any strong emotions anyway.

”I didn’t know what to so. I didn’t believe it myself.” Will hesitated for a split second. ”And honestly, at that time when I actually understood what was going on, I just wanted to be on my own. I was rather fed up with everything. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

Charlie smiled consolingly. He surely knew more details than the ones Will had just provided, it was toward him Will ran when he needed an escape, an escape from everything real. Mike still felt guilty and the jealousy nagged at his shirtsleeve, but he managed to brush it off. He visualized the jealousy as one of those house elves which had clung onto them when they tried to leave the laundry cellar at the castle, he envisioned himself kicking it away and trying to shut the door before it got a hold of him again. And with a deep breath, he managed.

”I’m glad that you found something that helped you,” he said earnestly.

Will nodded, gratefully.

Mike couldn’t take any more of this, so he didn’t ask any further questions and luckily nobody else did either. Instead they accepted seconds and ate rather quietly. In the background the never-ending staircases waited for them, never letting them forget to seize this moment of leisure. They still had a long way to go.

***

They made it to the second platform with little fuss. Mike thought he could sense the mountain moving beneath his feet a couple of times, but since Will and Charlie didn’t seem to mind he assumed that it was just an illusion.

He and Dustin kept falling behind the rest of the group, but the pace had altogether decreased. The distance from the ground level to the first platform was about as long as the distance from the first platform to the second, but the climb had taken them much longer. Everyone was exhausted at this point and they hadn’t said much.

”Let’s rest here for a while. We can make it over to the other side before midnight, but we need some energy. The terrain is partially troublesome.”

Will wiped some sweat, leaning back against the fence which ran around the platform. He was weary but still held his spirit high. Mike truthfully felt dejected at this point. He tried to motivate himself by thinking about that this was something he’d never forget, an adventure, but it wasn’t exciting at all. Perhaps that was a good thing though. He’d rather not get into trouble.

Like the other one, the platform was equipped with a fireplace and some huts. They were the only ones there. The trees surrounding them didn’t grow as densely as further down, closer to the ground level. Along with the trees, the persistent sound of birds’ warbler had faded gradually as well. Here the wind blew and the sky was visible with no leaves shrouding the view. It was a bit colder too. The temperature had dropped steadily the higher they climbed.

The mountain around them didn't seem as daunting anymore, some of the peaks were even below themselves. There were still a few that towered above, but when Mike peered straight upwards from the position of the platform, he could see the tip contrasting against the blue sky and he knew that if they only made it past that point, the rest of the way would be downhill.

He wanted to get there as soon as possible. Now that the journey home had already begun and the fun appeared the be over, he had started to crave his own bed in his own basement ever more. He knew that it wasn’t far away. And he had already made plans for how he was going to spend the coming next days doing absolutely nothing but watch TV, eat, sleep and be happy that they made it home. The exhaustion was more inmost than he could put into words. Every cell in his body wanted some rest, his brain more than than his poor legs, and his legs wanted to sprawl out on the couch a whole lot more than they had ever wanted to before, which said a lot.

”I’ll take a nap,” Charlie said, stretching his arms. He slid into one of the huts with ease, as if this was his usual routine. The organic curtains closed behind him and so he was out of sight.

”Can I take a nap too?” Dustin pleaded.

”Of course,” Will said, ”In fact, I encourage all of you to get some sleep.”

”What about you then?”

”I’ll manage.”

One after the other they went inside the huts to rest. Mike dwelled with Will for another moment, trying to elicit an explanation or else convince him to get some sleep too. He barely got any at the first platform since he kept chatting with the other people there. It vaguely worried him that this platform was so empty. There had to be a reason why they were the only ones there, which was surely connected to the reason why Will didn’t want to slumber.

”Will, you need energy,” Mike said.

”I know, but it’s alright,” he shrugged, ”It’s okay, you can go.”

”But —”

”Just listen. It’s fine.” Will smiled a little. He shifted his weight off the fence, cupped Mike’s cheek and kissed him. Before Mike even realized what was happening, it was over. Will chuckled at his dumbstruck expression.

”We’re going to Europe when this is over,” Mike pouted. ”Just us.”

”Sure thing. Now go. Goodnight.” Will pushed his face away, laughing.

Mike finally caved in and shuffled into one of the huts, the one which Max and Eleven lay in. There were hammocks hanging inside, four of them, attached at either side of the cup shaped building. Aside from the hammocks, there was nothing else in terms of furnishing. There were no windows either, only the vault which one could enter through, where the straw curtains shifted the daylight out. It was dim and cosy, hard to tell that whether it was day or night, and cooler than outside where the sun was still scorching and the humidity made everything unpleasant to the touch.

Eleven struggled around in the fabric. The fabric revealed how she moved as her knees poked out, her feet, her arms and hands. She resembled a furious butterfly cocoon. Luckily the hammock was attached securely, or else it would surely have fallen to the floor already.

”I thought those were supposed to be comfy!” she complained.

”You have to lay still, El!” Max told her.

Mike found a comfortable position right away. He enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped around in the soft fabric. It gave the same feeling of safety as pulling a blanket over your head, or the feeling of crawling into a pillow fortress. The hammock swayed softly back and fourth at first, before it became still. Eleven’s querulous comments kept him awake, he couldn’t help but laugh at her struggling.

Once she understood that she had to lay still it didn’t take long until they drifted off into sleep. The traveling had been toilsome and they were too tired to resist. Mike could probably have slept for twelve hours straight if it wasn’t because the mountain started vibrating and a deafening explosion woke him up sometime around five-thirty.


	18. Chapter 18

”What the fuck?!”

Mike heard Dustin’s voice coming from outside their hut, as well as clomping steps hurrying over the wooden floor. He then heard Will faintly, but whatever he said was drowned in the thundering vibrations that afflicted intermittently with only a matter of seconds in between. For a moment Mike was sure they were going to die, that the mountain was falling apart, that this was the end. He just closed his eyes again, didn’t dare to move. The hammocks swayed wildly and Mike was sure he didn’t create the movement.

”Mike?” Eleven squeaked, ”Max?”

”Yeah,” he replied through tense jaws, still having his eyes shut tightly.

The straw curtains were pulled aside with a brusque sweep of an arm. Evening light beamed into the hut, making the world look like it had an orange filter all over. Will popped his head into the hut, his eyes bewildered, and yet he didn’t have a panicked countenance.

”We better go,” he said curtly, ”Leave the backpacks behind. We need to be quick.” After that he disappeared out of sight again.

Mike didn’t think beforehand, like a machine he just hurled himself out of the hammock and walked straight out. Max and Eleven followed him closely behind with conscious bedheads and equally startled expressions of their faces. Everyone but Will and Charlie kept looking around them frantically, eyes flickering, hearts pounding. They were gathered on the deck, waiting for something, nobody knew what. Will didn’t stop to explain anything.

”This way,” was his only command and then he pointed upwards.

”Wait, we’re going to climb? The mountain’s falling apart!” Nancy objected, but she, just like everyone else followed him obediently.

Will walked much faster than he had done before. There were no stairs anymore and they had to find their own path amid in the rocky environment. Will seemed to know approximately where to put his feet already, having done this journey many times before, which was bonkers considering how difficult it was and how long it had taken them to get this far.

Charlie didn’t seem as shaken as the rest either. Perhaps it was because Will had specifically wished for a companion who didn’t freak out easily. Mike thought it was a perfectly appropriate to be a bit freaked out when the mountain they were climbing vibrated violently every now and then without premonition.

”The dwarfs — ” Will began, taking a big step, ” — are probably up to something. They live in the mountains, they’re just below us. And — ” he skipped to another rock ” — I’m afraid whatever they’re doing will attract some unwanted attention.”

”Seems like they’re blowing the whole mountain range into pieces,” Lucas muttered.

Mike, ungraceful and clumsy as ever, struggled like a colt to keep up with the rest while Lucas moved as smoothly in the mountain terrain as in the woodlands. Out of breath, scared and newly awoken, Mike felt absolutely useless. If something were to happen, he’d die right away, he was sure. The wind made his hair flutter around, disturbing his vision as if nature wanted to make his life just a little bit more difficult than it already was.

Dustin was also out of breath, but his steps were sturdier and his balance wouldn’t fluke even when he had to go around difficult routes. If Mike’s legs were conspicuously lanky and wobbly, Dustin’s were the exact opposite. The two of them walked alongside one another at the back of the group, probably looking hilarious as they manifested such polarized struggles.

”They’re expanding their city, making the tunnels run deeper into the underground. It’s a safety thing, in case the monsters from the Upside Down would invade,” Dustin said without looking up from the ground. There was definitely annoyance in his voice. It became even more apparent when he added, ”Why would they blow their own home into pieces, Lucas? They’re not idiots!”

This made Will pivot on his heel, mid-step, to look behind him. Dustin also looked behind him as if he thought Will had paused for someone else’s sake, but since there was no one behind himself, it was obvious that Will’s attention was directed right at him. This made him seem genuinely bemused, almost offended. Now everyone looked at him and Steve seemed like he was searching for something to say but couldn’t settle for what would be appropriate for this situation, so in the end he just wet his lips and closed his mouth again. He itched the back of his neck nervously.

”You’re a dwarf, Dustin, like I told you before,” was the only thing he said at last, with a shrug of the shoulder.

”Sorry?” Dustin frowned.

”You’re a dwarf.”

”I’m certainly not, Steve, don’t be stupid.”

Dustin rolled his eyes and started walking, forcing his way past Max and Nancy. Mike couldn’t stop observing the way he carried himself, the way his legs appeared to be chunky logs and how strong he seemed altogether. Dustin had never been exceptionally strong. Now it seemed like he could quite literally move a mountain by sheer will, or at least the mountain couldn’t move him even when it shook. Dustin remained secure on his feet, didn’t even kneel down like the rest of them did for stability. It had to be an optical illusion, because to the eye Dustin still maintained the same shape as before, but he radiated a different power that Yale-nerd Dustin Henderson did not normally possess.

Mike even struggled to walk himself because he was distracted, staring at Dustin’s frame in front of him. Mike suspected that if he pushed Dustin from behind now, he wouldn’t fall forward, it’d just feel like pushing a a solid wall. He could feel it, and it was awfully tempting to try whether it was actually true. The issue with this was how Dustin seemed to be in a very irascible mood and he could probably snap Mike’s spine off with scarcely any effort at this point.

”How did you know that?” Will inquired. He continued walking, glancing over his shoulder every two seconds. ”Not even I knew that. Did they tell you that first evening when you drank at Tinkerbell’s?”

”No.”

”So how did you learn it?”

”I don’t fucking know, Will!”

”Alright then.”

Will fell silent, put his hands up in surrender. Mike could swear he saw a little grin on Will’s face before he turned his face away. If Mike had only been faster, he would have wanted to be at the front with Will only to ask him what this mean, because although Will did not push the matter any further, it was obvious to everyone that something was going on with Dustin.

The mountain wasn’t as steep anymore, but the lack of stairs made it difficult to move nonetheless. The sun, though about to set, was must brighter at this height too. There were no trees to shield it and barely any clouds either. It was a mesmerizing view, to see everything from above and the endless landscape uninterrupted by manmade buildings. Mike wished he had had a camera to take a picture, knowing that he most likely wouldn’t see something like this in a while.

The vibrations didn’t come as frequently anymore, but every time Mike thought that it was finally over, the ground shook violently again. The worst was honestly the sound, like an explosion deep down. It was startling and menacing, more so than the unreliable ground they walked on. The sound could be felt into the very bone and the fear was worse than the pain of falling over when the ground trembled.

”Will, what exactly do we do if a dragon comes?” Eleven asked, peering into the distance with a wary crease between her eyebrows.

”I haven’t figured that out yet,” Will mumbled dejectedly.

Those were not the most uplifting news, but nobody said anything. In fact, it seemed like the whole group just made a silent agreement to not even talk about this, to just forget it altogether. Forgetting is was of course impossible, but they could pretend at least.

Mike kept looking around him in the search for ideas. Where would the best hiding spot be? What could be used as a weapon? How far was it left until they could reach safety? How were they supposed to find each other again if they got separated from one another? Truthfully, the mountains didn’t offer much at all. It was an unforgiving, barren landscape. At this point it seemed like praying was the best chance they had if a dragon would come.

***

They reached the highest point safely. It felt like a miracle, like the journey was complete, but the gate was still a long bit away. They could see that there was an intricate city, much larger than the lake community they had left behind, waiting for them. There seemed to be no end to it. The buildings and streets made apparent patterns that were mesmerizing to see from this height. The lights coming from the city were pretty against the darkness. It resembled the fireflies.

”It’s like New York,” Lucas noted, ”From above it looks checkered.”

”The gate it right there in the center,” Will said, pointing towards an open square in the middle of the dense city.

They only stopped for a brief pause to admire the view before continuing their route downhill. Mike felt more motivated now that he could literally see the gate looming in the distance. He knew very well that it was far, but at least he could see the goal ahead of him, it was like a carrot dangling right before him. Without really noticing, he had picked up the pace.

”Why the rush, Mike?” Dustin groaned as he was left behind.

”We’re almost there!” Mike said over his shoulder.

”I’m not running down the mountain, no way.”

Mike had learned that talking to Dustin was more or less vain. He was like an old man, stale and grumpy and seemingly impossible to enchant. Eleven and Steve had tried to cheer him up by telling stories and joking around, but that only agitated him. In a moment of sobriety Dustin had apologized and told them that he had no idea what was happening to him, that he couldn’t help it and that he didn’t mean to be rude, but they forgave him before he even asked them to. He was literally becoming a dwarf. The only thing missing was a beard.

The feeling of walking downhill felt unfamiliar. Having to lean backwards to stop yourself from stumbling forward was definitely more pleasant than having to force yourself upwards. Mike almost felt like he was flying, but he still had to be mindful so that he wouldn’t trip. The rocks were as unforgiving and hard as ever, hitting a knee on a sharp point would still hurt as much.

”I’m happy you let us see all of this, Will,” Nancy said earnestly, ”I haven’t had this much fun in a long time. And I haven’t been this exhausted and scared in a long time either. It’ll be weird to go back to work after all of this. But I suppose that’s how I felt last time too, and yet everything went back to normal as if nothing ever happened.”

”Don’t speak like this is the end, Nancy, save it for later,” Will smiled.

”Right. Sorry,” she excused herself. ”By the way, are the kids still following us? I haven’t heard them in a while.”

”I’m sure they’re okay. They know many nifty shortcuts and those kids never get hurt. They literally can’t get hurt because they vanish when threatened. They’re protected from all harm. I wish they would tell me about the shortcuts, but they refuse to since I’m too old.”

”I see.”

The sound of a horn echoed through the mountain range. Everyone stopped right at the spot. The sound came from various different points, as if the first blow had started a chain reaction which traveled all around them very rapidly. The sound rang all the way in to the marrow, sending a shiver down Mike’s spine. All of his senses were on high alert, heart pounding in his chest, but he remained still.

”No sudden movements, okay? Let’s go,” Will instructed, no louder than a whisper.

With Will leading the way they made their way forward, now much slower, almost creeping.There were some cracks and uneven levels along the ground, but there were no hiding spots. Further down the vegetation grew denser, just like on the opposite side of the range. Lucious trees and bushes, birds chirping and staircases awaited them, but on this spot, so near the very top of the mountain, they were exposed and vulnerable. The dark muted all colors so the grey cliffs, lichen in lilac, green and rusty yellow shades and dark shadows allowed them to blend into the background pretty well. It was hard to distinguish where each person ended and the landscape began. The eye naturally wandered to the luminous city below instead, but it was hard to have faith in the luck.

Mike restrained his breathing, afraid that the mere rise and fall of his chest would be too conspicuous. Nobody even asked what the horns meant, but Will’s stern facial expression said enough. It was bad. And Mike had already drawn the conclusion that it was a dragon, what else would it be?

And then, coming from behind, Mike heard the faint sound of wings. He had anticipated it, but now that it wasn’t just in his imagination anymore, it was more nerve-racking than ever. The sound came closer, and as it did it became apparent that those wings were massive and powerful, no ordinary pigeon for sure. Now he held his breath and his legs refused to walk. Will had stopped too.

”Do we run or play dead?” Max hissed.

She hadn’t even looked behind her. Not wanting to attract any attention, they were petrified, transfixed on the spot. Only their hair blew in the wind. Mike could swear that he heard the symphony of their erratic heartbeats in the eerie silence. Will glanced over his shoulder without moving his head.

”I think we better stay still. If she sees us, run.” He breathed slowly, closed his eyes. ”Don’t panic. Just take it easy, alright?” he said.

And they did their best. Mike felt the panic creeping inside. Knowing that freaking out was the worst thing he could do only made it seem even more alluring, the urge afflicted him in the same way as the urge to jump could suddenly hit one who stood by a steep or on a balcony high up in the air. But he persisted, remained still, didn’t even flick his hair out of his eyes when it blew.

In his dizziness he tried to focus on the feeling of cliff beneath his feet, now solid and safe. He wished that there was a wall to lean against to stop the shivering, but in the rock landscape there was barely any peaks that raised above the rest. When he closed his eyes and couldn’t see his friends around him, he felt very lonely. In that moment it was as if though he was the only person in the world, the mountain was the only place and the dragon was the only enemy.

And in spite of the fear, that stirred something in him that felt a whole lot like a rush. Dopamine. Adrenaline. Survival instinct. All senses of high-alert.

The wings came closer. Even hoarse breathing could be heard now. The lungs must have been like industrial machines that pumped oxygen in and out of them, each exhale seemed to send waves of brutal strength through the air, and yet the sound of the breathing was so real and so alive that it didn’t resemble a machine at all.

The realness was frightening and somehow this threatening reality was less deniable than everything else, because as the powerhouse of a creature swept above their heads Mike remembered that if they died here, they died forever. Leaving the dimension wouldn’t bring them back to life. And if the definition of life was that it could end, like they had discussed that morning outside Tinderbell’s, then that meant death was equally real as life itself. This was a matter of life and death in its purest form.

The wings were like sails made of skin and muscle, with sprawling veins and impressive claws at the end. Each time the wings moved, they forced a wave of pressure through the air. As it swept above their heads, the impact made Nancy stumble and she put a foot out for balance, surely by reflex. Then she stopped and stood still as before, her face strained with regret, but she didn’t utter a sound. In the dark it was almost impossible to tell that she had even moved at all, but the dragon seemed to have heard it. Mike knew that dragons normally didn’t have good eyesight but remarkable ears and noses.

It was now ahead of them. For the first time it was possible to actually see it. Its body was indeed massive. Armor-like scales covered the calloused skin. In the subtile light of the moon, the scales appeared to have a maroon sheen to them, reflecting the light beautifully. The neck and tail, both long and gracefully curving with each movement, gave the creature a sleek appearance despite the thickness of each body part. The tail was probably as thick as a tree, and surely as long, the mid part of the body was like a bus.

For a moment Mike couldn’t even fear what he saw, it was so astonishing and gorgeously beautiful. The proportions, the shapes and the color gave the immediate impression that this was a superior creature, the queen on top of the food chain, the ruler of all living things. Accurate or not, the majestic view wouldn’t let anyone think otherwise.

Mike was so captivated by what he saw that he didn’t even realize that the neck curved and the head changed its direction, now looking right at them. Two fierce, pointy eyes stared back at him. The moon reflected in them, making them look like brilliant citrine gems, but with a shard of black in the center which gave them life, knowing and ancient.

”So, is it time to run now?” Steve asked.

From where Mike stood Will’s frame was merely a black shadow with the luminous city in the background, and aloft in front of him, this giant dragon hovered. Each flap of the wings and each exhale through its nostrils made his hair flutter. He remained calm but Mike could see how he trembled. Then, slowly and carefully, Will started walking backwards without turning his face away from the dragon, and softly he said:

”Yes, I think so.”

And then they ran.

All nine of them, like stampeding horses, ran for their lives. Mike didn’t even know where he was going, but his legs brought him as fast as the rocky environment would allow him to downwards. How he stayed on his feet, he didn’t know. Every step felt rickety, he was sure he was going to fall over and die, but he didn’t. The clumsiness seemed to have vanished, overcome by survival instinct or adrenaline. He was suddenly hot as if his blood was afire inside of him, the cold winds couldn’t reach him.

He was running away, but he felt unstoppable, like he could conquer the world. He wasn’t even sure if the dragon was following, he didn’t look behind him even once. He knew this feeling. He felt as untamed and invincible as that night when they found the gate, when he stood in the water with Dustin. And with the open universe above him, the starry night sky and the wilderness around him, he realized that the vision that the lake made him see was a prophecy — it revealed itself to him and it asked: Are you ready for this? Is this what you want? — and he accepted the offer.

His thoughts were incoherent, mere flashes and bursts of insight, but clearer than ever. Some part of him felt distant, it was so calm it just didn’t make sense, it gave him a perspective from above, as if he was watching them run from a position of safety in a different reality, while the other part of him was so present that it felt like nothing else existed in the world but the mountain, the dragon, himself and his friends.

Lucas and Charlie managed well, their feet easily found their way around the bumps and cracks in the mountain. Lucas pulled Eleven along, almost making her fall over as she could’t keep up the pace, but somehow she managed with only some gasps and panicked shrieks when she was about to trip. Nancy, Steve and Will were just behind them. Steve kept swearing to himself like a prayer, a mantra. For a second Mike thought that Max was behind himself, but then he spotted her way ahead of the rest, sprinting faster than even Lucas and Charlie — like a zoomer. Then he searched frantically for Dustin but couldn’t see him anywhere.

They were right in front of himself, moving to the left and then to the right and then back again depending on the ground, looking like shadows in the dark. Mike could barely tell who was who, but their voices let him know. If they could only run straight forward on flat ground, they wouldn’t have struggled as much.

Will kept throwing glances behind himself, rubbing his hands together as if he was preparing some spell. Some vague sparks of light lit up between his palms and they grew larger, but before they reached a reasonable size for a fireball, they burned out and vanished again. Will’s eyes were focused and fierce and his mouth was pulled into a displeased snarl. Mike only pleaded that whatever he was trying to do, it’d work out soon. This was the type of situation that his powers gad been saved for.

”MIKE!” Dustin screamed.

Mike turned around, almost falling over at the sudden shift of weight. Dustin was behind the rest of them, running as fast as he could but it wasn’t fast, still. Like in the worst of nightmares, it was like he ran without getting anywhere, as if he waded through deep snow or was held back by force. His eyes showed too much white and truthfully, Mike had never seen Dustin so scared before.

Now Mike saw the dragon but it wasn’t as close as he had thought it to be. But it was lowering itself towards the ground. The thud when the four legs met the mountain could be felt through the ground. The tail whipped through the air. The sound of the scales moving, almost rattling, against one another was so strange, there was nothing quite like it, but somehow the smooth movement resembled that of a snake.

Dustin yelled again and Mike sprinted back to help him, feeling like an idiot for running towards the beast. He grabbed Dustin’s arm and pulled him along the best he could. Dustin was out of breath, panting through a dry throat, wheezing and alarming. He wouldn’t make it all the way down to the platform, Mike realized.

”WILL!” Mike called out.

Will glanced behind him. The dragon’s neck curved back and then it bolted forward. Its jaws opened and a vigorous roar came out. He put his arm over his face, as if to shield himself from the sound itself. There was no fire.

Remembering that the jaws and the pointy teeth were in fact not the biggest threat wasn’t soothing the slightest. Mike had almost forgotten altogether that dragons could spit fire, but as the mouth opened it revealed two pipe-like features at the back of the gape and he knew from all the fantasy books he had read that the fire would come out of those.

”WE NEED A PLAN!” Mike begged, as they caught up to Will.

Dustin almost tripped at an aberration on the ground. His feet had the clumsiness of a pair of clown shoes. Mike held him up. At this point Dustin was crying. He wailed and tears streamed down his face, and yet he looked scared more than anything and not sad. Another deafening roar coming from behind made him cry out anew. With Mike pulling him forward and Will pushing from behind, they were definitely moving forward but the loud thuds with had to be the dragon’s feet stomping closer.

”Will! Fireball!” Charlie yelled from the front. His voice got drowned in the other sounds ringing in Mike’s ear. Charlie stopped for a split second, gesturing with his hand like a sphere. ”MAKE A FIREBALL!”

Nancy ran into him. Perhaps she hadn’t even seen him stop. Both of them fell over with surprised gasped. The sound of human bodies against the rough mountain was an awful reminder of how fragile they were, because it wasn’t the mountain that got hurt by the impact. Steve helped them up, it only took half a second, and then they kept running.

”There’s a cave in the mountain a bit further down! Hide in it!” Will commanded. ”Charlie, show them the way!”  
”What about —” Mike floundered.

”GO!” Will pushed him. ”I’ll catch up!”  
The moment when Mike kept running past Will, seeing him disappear behind him, felt like a million years. In such short time he managed to think and feel so much. Something piqued a feeling in him which told him that this was the last time he’d see Will, but he knew better than to let it overtake him. Will didn’t need to be saved all the time, and Mike wasn’t always capable of keeping him safe anyway. So, with Dustin dragged behind him, Mike looked only forward.

He wasn’t sure which one of the silhouettes belonged to Charlie, but everyone ran in the same direction so it didn’t really matter anyway. Then, they abruptly stopped to look down at something on the ground. Mike soon realized that there was a cleft in the mountain.

”Hurry!” Steve pleaded.

Mike let go of Dustin’s arm once they caught up. His lungs were burning, his throat sore and dry as the desert. His head was spinning and his body felt wobbly. He didn’t even trust himself, fearing that he’d faint, so he stayed a couple of feet away from the immense crack with stretched in the ground. If Mike hadn’t seen the others point it out, he probably wouldn’t have spotted it. It appeared black and well shrouded by the night, marginally darker than the surrounding. It was uneven and full of crooks, wide enough for a human person but not wide enough for much more than that.

”The cave is further down!” Charlie fussed, pointing right ahead, ”This is not the one!”

”I can’t keep going, guys, I can’t!” Dustin cried.

Charlie swallowed. His eyes flickered as he searched for Will in the background. Then, as if he realized that they didn’t have much of a choice, he nodded, first anxiously and then with more determination. In that moment Mike realized that Charlie had probably never made any crucial decisions on his own, if any at all. He was the epitome of a loyal follower. This made Mike queasy but he wouldn’t make a better leader himself in this situation so he just waited and pleaded for whatever the plan was, that it’d work.

”This chink must be new. I don’t know it very well,” Charlie admitted. He knelt down and crawled closer to the edge, peering into it. He picked up a smaller rock which laid next to him and threw it into the abyss. The sound of it hitting ground echoed after only a moment. ”I suppose we could try. It will probably get us to the cave anyway. It’s not very deep, but it sure is dark.”

”We’ll figure something out,” Lucas assured.

Max was the first one to climb into the crack, carefully but as fast as she could. Eleven was squeezing herself in sideways. Whatever Will was doing seemed to have distracted the dragon, earning them another moment to hide. Dustin was the next to crawl into the crack. He had stopped crying but the frantic expression remained on his face. Only when his entire body and head was beneath the surface level, protected by the walls of the mountain around him, did he let out a sigh of relief.

”Fucking hell, this is nuts…” he muttered.

”How big is it? Is there any risk that we get stuck?” Nancy asked, sweeping her hair out of her face. She was folded over, panting. There was a large rip in the seam of her dress. The loose fabric billowed in the wind like a flag.

”It’s alright, I think,” Eleven replied in a strained voice, trying to look beneath her. She had arm on each side of the crack, using her elbows for support, and one foot on a protruding plateau. She kept moving downwards. Mike watched nervously, anticipating someone to slip and fall any second.

”You two should go,” Mike said and nodded for Steve and Nancy to get in, ”I’ll follow.”

”Lucas, you better go too, you’re the one who’s fittest right now,” Charlie said.

Lucas took a deep breath and knelt down. With a displeased sigh he popped a leg into the crack, felt along the walls and found a spot to place his foot. The sound of Max’s voice could be heard further down like a faint mumble. Then Eleven shrieked. The sound echoed, and a moment later a loud clunk followed. Mike threw himself closer to the cleft, heart caught in his throat. He peeped his head over the edge and peered into the dark, where he could just barely perceive the top of Lucas’ head.

”EL!” he shouted, ”Are you okay?!”

”I’m okay!”

”What’s down there?!”

”I don’t know! I can’t see anything!”

”It’s a part of the tunnel system for sure,” Charlie mumbled. He glanced up. The dragon had headed in a different direction, chasing after the intermittent flashes of light which traveled quickly. Will’s body was just a tiny dot that couldn’t be distinguished other than when the glowing spheres lit his face up. Charlie’s face was pulled into a taut expression. He cocked his head towards the cleft, ”Off you go. Hurry.”

”Ladies first!” Steve said with a commendable gesture which certainly didn’t belong in this moment.

Nancy didn’t even answer. She sat down on her butt with her legs dangling over the edge, and after a deep inhale she started the climb. Steve mimicked how she had done it, though not as gracefully. He grunted and whined a lot more too, and in a spuriously calm tone he spoke his thoughts out loud.

”And then I’ll put my foot there… and then my hand here… okay, this is fine… now I’ll just grab this little thing here on my left… and then my foot goes to that spot… very nice… I can do this…” 

”Don’t slip now, Steve, because if you do you’ll fall on me and then I’ll fall on Lucas!” Nancy interfered, brusquely.

”Thank you for enlightening me, I had no idea!” Steve snarked, ”Now you ruined my flow!”

”Sorry!”

”I’ll go last,” Charlie said and patted Mike on the shoulder, ”Go.”

Mike had seen everyone enter the depth before him, but to actually start climbing down was daunting. The feeble moonlight only reached a couple of feet into the cleft, the rest was as dark as the Void. He found good gripping spots and made his way down quite smoothly for as long as he could see, but once the darkness swallowed him it became more difficult. With trembling hands he felt along the walls on both sides, putting all of his faith onto the spot where his foot found its balance, before shifting his weight to the next spot.

In movies he had seen how characters would put their backs against one wall and keep their legs stretched to the other side, but these walls were uneven and not sleek enough to slide down like that. Mike quickly concluded that his current method was the most efficient.

”Jump, Max!” Eleven encouraged from down below. ”It’s not far!”

”Is it a hard surface to land on?” Max asked warily.

”Yes, but it’s okay! I’ll catch you!”

”No, stay away! You’ll get hurt if I land on you!”

”Is it —”

”JUST JUMP, MAX!” Dustin bellowed.

Max let go of the walls and jumped, almost stumbling. Her scream only lasted for a second or two, then a loud thud brought it to an abrupt end. Another thud of the same kind came anon after the first. Mike found himself holding his breath, his heart stopping. The silence was the worst. The moment both Max and Dustin started cussing and coughing, he was awash with relief. They may have been in pain, but they were going to be alright, neither landed on their head and died at least.

”My ankle!” Max whined.

”Are you alright?”

”Yeah, but it freakin’ hurts!”

Mike didn’t know how much left he had below him, but when Steve had made the jump he knew that it was his turn. He felt with his feet along the walls beneath him, and unlike before, he was met by the empty air. He had reached a large cave, but in lieu of entering it from the side, he was coming in through the top, the ceiling. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but for some reason the perpetual darkness was a surprise to him, he had hoped that it would lighten up eventually.

”Okay, guys, get out of the way then!” he said.

”All clear, you can come!

Dwelling wouldn’t make it easier. Mike just let go of the walls and let himself fall. The moment he swooshed through the air, with nothing left to do but pray for a safe landing, he feared that this was the end, the suicide jump that would be the last thing he ever did. But then he hit that unforgiving, solid rock and now it was the sound of his own flesh crashing against it that he heard and the next thing he knew was the brutal, throbbing pain of having fallen thirteen feet from the top to the bottom of a cave. Along with the pain came the realization that his breath had been knocked out of him, his chest felt so tight that he couldn’t force any air either in or out of his lungs.

”Mike? Everything okay?” Dustin checked. Mike only groaned in return.

”Good.”

They had made it this far at least, and the sound of the dragon’s thundering steps were now distant and vague. For a second everything was still. Listening. Instilling. Max whined a little about her ankle but nobody moved.

”Charlie?! Are you up there?!” Eleven yelled at last.

Silence.

It was impossible to see anything and anyone. Mike opened his eyes but it didn’t make much difference. He blinked, tried to adjust himself to the lack of light. His breathing slowly eased up, but he was in a great deal of pain. He remained on the ground, face turnt upwards. He opened and closed his fists, titled his head from side to side, bent and stretched out his knees and wiggled his feet. Nothing was broken. Carefully, he lifted himself up. Ripples of agonizing throbbing sent through his skull as he stood up. With his arms held out, he started walking straight forward. He soon bumped into Steve, who gasped in surprise when Mike’s hands touched his face.

”Sorry, it’s just me!” he said.

More silence. Mike heard someone else walking around, the sound of their steps echoed in the voluminous cave. The acoustic was incredible, eerie and creepy but also magnificent. He realized that it was Eleven who was walking.

”Charlie?” she called anxiously.

Mike had just concluded that they were not going to receive any answer when Charlie suddenly, panting and distressed, yelled to them from the surface level above:

”I have to help Will!”

The sound of his voice bounced against the mountain walls as the waves passed through the cleft, creating an odd echo. Then he disappeared and the dragon roared in the distance.

Mike felt his guts twisting and suddenly the darkness seemed even darker. Will needed help and here he was, miserable and useless, stuck in a cave. He knew that he couldn’t climb out the same way as he came. But just as he was about to give up and just admit his surrender he remembered — he’s supposed to be the paladin.


	19. Chapter 19

”Well…” Nancy started, ”What do we do now?”

”We have to help Will,” Mike said, but his determination didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t see and had no idea where he was. Now he also realized that he had no idea if there were any other dangers lurking inside the cave. It was very quiet though, so if there was then it was very still. Every movement echoed, which was to their advantage if something approached them, but it was to their disadvantage if they didn’t want to be found.

”Dustin, do you know this place?” Max asked.

”Why the hell would I?” Dustin muttered.

”Because you’re a dwarf, smartass. You knew about the tunnels somehow, didn’t you?”

”Yeah, but since when is navigation a dwarf thing? Lucas is the ranger, he should show us the way out. I don’t know where we are.”

Mike sighed. He took some teetering steps forward, arms stretched out in front of him, until he found a wall. It was cold under his palms. He walked along it, hoping to find an opening somewhere. He felt something sticky and it was unsettling to not be able to see what it was. He wiped his hand on his shirt, which was already dirty and not even his own.

”What are you doing, Mike?” Dustin asked, less grumpy now. He sounded quite amused, even. His voice came from a spot quite far away, possibly the opposite side of the cave.

”What?”

”What are you going?”

”Searching for an opening or something, I don’t know,” Mike replied blandly. Then, after a shrug of his head, he blurted, ”Wait, can you see me?!”

”Sure, I do!” Dustin frowned, ”You mean that you can’t see me?”

Mike shook his head no, to which Dustin hummed as if to confirm that he could indeed see in the dark. Of course he could, he was a dwarf. Mike felt dumb for not realizing sooner. Coming from different spots around them, the others expressed that they couldn’t see either. Dustin only chortled at them, so contented that it was annoying. This was not the right time to be haughty, everyone’s abilities were needed and not being able to see was definitely not a good thing. If they had only brought the backpacks, they could have lit a match, but the sacs were left at the second platform in the huts.

”Okay, so you can see but you can’t navigate?” Steve inquired.

”Pretty much.”

”And Lucas can navigate but can’t see?”

”I suppose I could try — ” Lucas said timidly, ” — but I’m not sure if there is any way out of here.”

Someone bumped into Mike. He got so startled by it that he almost fell over. Turned out it was Eleven. She grabbed the fabric of his shirt in a tight grip, stayed close. Mike wanted to ask her if she could try to use her powers, but he didn’t dare to, afraid that it’d only make her feel like it was her fault that they couldn’t make it out in case it didn’t work.

”Okay, so if Dustin tells Lucas what he sees, which options we have, then Lucas can tell us where to go?”

This they agreed to. Dustin told them right away that there was only one way to go, so there were no other options to choose from but to walk in that direction. He also guided everyone towards one another, made them hold onto each other to not get lost. He walked first, and so they made their way through the chilly cave and into a smaller tunnel.

Mike could hear the volume around him shrink. Their voices no longer echoed like it did before. The sound of dripping water could be heard faintly, but it was still quiet and there were no indications of life aside from themselves. It was quite chilly. The only warmth he had was in his hands, which were intertwined with Nancy’s and Eleven’s. Even if they trusted Dustin, it was impossible to not feel vulnerable and frightened. If something were to happen, Dustin was the only one who had a chance of escaping.

But then, like a miracle, a large opening gaped in front of them and the glowing city and the moon allowed them to see something again. Mike had to blink to get adjusted to it. It was delightful. It was a rather deep cave, still having the pipe shape of a tunnel. There was seemed to be a large boulder outside, the rounded shape of the rock shrouded a part of the opening, making it look like a crescent rather than a consistent circle.

”This must be the cave Will told us to hide in,” Max noted, running her hand along the wall. With a slight limp she shuffled towards the opening. When the bottom hem of the pants moved up it was apparent that her ankle was swollen and sore, and yet Mike was grateful because it could had been a lot worse. What a waste of newly discovered powers. She was meant to run like the wind, now she couldn’t even walk properly.

”So we should just wait here then?” Steve was already about to sit down on the ground. Nancy gave him a disapproving glare which made him stop half-way down. He put his hands up in surrender, muttered an apology under his breath.

”No, we need to get out there again,” Mike said sternly.

He walked towards the opening slowly, hunching down and staying close to the walls. He could hear the sound of the dragon moving nearby, it made the whole mountain tremble. He feared that the cave would fall in on them if the beast would ran right above them, but it was not yet so close that it was a threat. He also heard Charlie’s voice yelling something, and luckily Will replied. He didn’t hear what they said, but they were apparently both alive still.

”We need a plan, we can’t just throw ourselves out there, there’s a fucking dragon waiting for us!” Steve interrupted. He had his hands on his hips and watched Max get ever closer to the open with a disapproving strain in his face. She actually seemed about to head out right away, but then Steve finally called after her, ”Come back here, Max! You’re injured! Predators always look for the weakest in the herd, they’re not stupid. You’ll be an easy target. You better not leave at all, it’s safest for you in here.” 

”I’m just looking!” she replied over her shoulder, irritated.

She glanced over at Mike, who was on the other side of the tunnel. He was close enough so that the light could hit his face. His skin almost looked resplendent in the moonlight but his dark hair blended in with the shadows seamlessly. Max’s hair was stood out like a sore thumb, being the exact opposite of camouflaging. When Mike looked behind him he could scarcely see the others, except for Eleven who had taken a couple of steps closer to the opening as well.

”I don’t think we have time to make a plan,” Mike said, peering outside, ”We just have to go for it. Let’s just try to distract the dragon so it never gets too close to anyone. It’s all about giving each other just a moment to escape. If we manage to do that I think we’ll make it.”

”So we should use ourselves as bait then?” Dustin asked, arms crossed sternly over his chest. Mike knew what his face looked like without even being able to see it, it was skeptical and shrewd but it wasn’t disdainful. Dustin knew just as well as Mike did that he would follow the plan regardless of how crazy it sounded, such were simply the group dynamic that they had formed over the years. Dustin would always question him and give him a sneering look as though Mike was an imbecilic moron, but when it all came down to it and times were crucial, he would follow Mike’s lead.

”Well, do you have any better idea?”

Dustin didn’t answer. He only sighed deeply.

”I have a better idea.” Lucas stepped forward, becoming distinguishable.

With the same graceful gait that he had had for a while now, he went past both Max and Mike and stepped outside the save without a moment of hesitation. Strangely, it seemed like he had been a ranger his whole life because he carried himself with the commendable confidence of someone who really knew what they were doing. Mike almost felt offended by this sudden turn, but he was too baffled to stop it from happening. When Lucas was out in the open, he turned around and looked back inside the cave from where everyone were nervously watching him.

”I’ll take a look. I’m the fastest one, I can do it. Then I’ll come back and tell you what to do, if anything at all. Putting everyone at risk if not absolutely necessary would be stupid,” he said with a sedate half-smile.

Nobody questioned him, and with a quick salute, he ran off and out of sight. Mike felt his tense muscles deflate. He had been mentally prepared to go himself, but now he was once again stuck in the cave feeling useless. He slumped down against the wall with a sigh. This day felt like it had lasted at least a week and Mike’s intuition told him that it would probably last for much longer still.

”Why did I choose to be a dwarf?” Dustin asked as he came over and sat down next to Mike.

”When you tell me why I wanted to be paladin!” Mike frowned.

Dustin made himself as comfortable as he could with his back against the wall. He massaged his shoulders and groaned. In this dim light Mike could see the traces of the tears that had streamed when they were chased. Now it seemed surreal to think that Dustin had cried like that. Mike hadn't seen him cry since Suzie broke up with him around Thanksgiving, their freshman year of high school. Now he seemed okay, strangely calm even considering the circumstances.

”I think I could actually grow a beard now. Wouldn’t that be neat?” Dustin chuckled. He stroke his chin and his cheeks, wiggled his eyebrows.

”You couldn’t grow facial hair before?”

”Never! I got like a weird hair-thing right here —” he pointed at his upper lip with his finger ” — but it was literally one strand, super thick and gross, and nothing else.”

Mike wrapped his arms around his knees, laughing. The floor was cold and hard and so was the wall, the air smelled murky and every muscle in his body hurt, but for a moment everything seemed quite normal. Mike could imagine a myriad of soda cans laying around them and some music on the radio, just like at home. And in this moment he realized how very homesick he was. He and Dustin were joined by the rest of the gang, and as they were all seated closely to one another and the cave suddenly felt a bit warmer, Mike realized that this was a good way to could spend his last minutes in life, in case he was going to die later that night.

”I think I have more facial hair than you!” Eleven giggled, ”I have to pluck my eyebrows all the time and I get a little mustache right here on the corners of my mouth if I don’t remove it.”

”What?! Since when?! I've never noticed that!”

”All girls do!” Max rolled her eyes.

”And believe it or not, but girls actually have hairy legs and pits too!” Nancy added.

She fiddled with the ripped fabric of her dress between her fingers, smiled a little to herself. Her face looked softer these days. When she was a teenager her face was full of hollows and sharp angles, in strange lightning like this she could to look like a Tim Burton character, but now it was plumper and smoother. Especially when she smiled, Mike thought she was cute, even though she was older now. He realized that he was getting sentimental when he suddenly thought that he would miss her a lot if this was the last time they got to hang out together, but for that reason he refused to get sullen.

”I know that! I just didn't know that El had a mustache!” Dustin cackled, putting his finger on his upper lip. Eleven pushed his shoulder so he almost keeled over.

"I read Robin’s articles sometimes," Mike admitted, "She often writes about things like that. I think it’s really interesting to read, I learn new things all the time.”

”You didn’t know you read her stuff!” Steve exclaimed, cheering up immediately, ”Why didn’t you tell her? Last time I met her she specifically asked if you guys read her work. She’s quite famous these days, you know, she’s good at what she’s doing. It’s not like when I had to read Nancy’s old essays back in high school, blah blah —”

”Oh, shut up! I had better grades than you ever had!”

”Sure, but perhaps that’s why your essays were so boring? They were so by the book, so correct all the time! No offense — ” Steve put his hands up to stop Nancy from attacking him ” — But Robin writes original stuff, you know? Revolutionary ideas, lots of fresh insight. And she’s so uncensored, which is probably why people either love her or hate her. But the point is that she makes people feel a lot of things, and I think that’s really cool.”

Steve seemed embarrassed by this ramble when he finally stopped. He ran a hand through his hair and his posture slouched. He was even out of breath. The stillness only lasted for a moment before everyone started praising Robin is the same fashion. Dustin had read her writing since long before she got anything published, that was no secret, and Nancy even had some of the articles framed in her kitchen, but Mike was too anxious to admit it. Robin's work were so unfiltered it scared him. Sometimes it felt like she understood him better than he understood himself, she could phrase things in a way that he had never even thought of before but that totally made sense.

”I really liked her reportage about coming out experiences. Have you read it?” Dustin looked at everyone. Mike could swear his gaze dwelled for a second longer when it reached him before moving to Nancy. Dustin gestured eagerly and told them, ”She visited people of different ages and nationalities and interviewed them about how they did it, how people reacted and all of that. Really interesting. The environment that you grow up with can really change how you feel about things, even if you don’t notice it.”

Knock, knock. No, more like, ’I know you’re in there and if we die tonight then this could be your last chance to tell us’ — followed by some knocking, but instead of using his knuckles he slammed a whole battering ram against the closet doors. Mike couldn’t decide if he felt under attack or about to break free, but it was true, that part about this being his last chance. And if he was about to die anyway, what did he have to lose?

”Guys.” Mike didn’t realize he had spoken before he already had everyone’s attention.

There was a gentle ambience which lingered in the air, a closeness which had been formed as they sat in a cluster in a cave, waiting for a signal or a sign, and the future was so uncertain that they had absolutely nothing but each other to find solace in. The looks they gave him were soft and patient and Nancy’s eyes were already abounding with happiness. They already knew what he was about to say, he felt it, but nobody rushed him while he prepared himself. He knew that he’d only come out to them once and he wanted to do it the right way, especially since he waited so long, but for some reason he couldn’t elicit anything wistful or grandiose. He had spent to much time practicing in front of the bathroom mirror, envisioned a hundred different ways to say it, but now his head was blank. He leaned back against the wall with a sigh. He couldn’t stifle a chuckle and he shook his head slowly.

”Oh, man, what’s the point?” he said, ”You already know what I’m going to say. Does it even matter anymore?”

”It does,” Eleven assured, ”I think those are the things that really matter right now.”

”Fair enough.”

Mike shifted his position again. It would have been easier to say it if they weren’t staring at him like that, but on the other hand, if they didn’t then he’d say that was an excuse to not say anything since he didn’t want to say it out of nowhere while they were doing something else. After reminding himself anew that this could be his last chance, he just said it.

”I like guys.” There was a brief pause of silence before he continued, at a very fast pace hoping that nobody had the chance to interrupt him, ”But I’m not gay, just so you know. I like girls too, and perhaps that’s a greedy or whatever and I know some people say bisexuality is not even a real thing and all guys who claim to be bi are actually just gay but in denial or something, but I swear I —”

”Chill!” Max exclaimed, laughing, ”We get it! We know!”

Mike clammed up. Not speaking was even more nerve-racking now that he had already started, because to sit quietly and just wait to receive their reactions was daunting. Not that he had anticipated them to expression repulsion or anything, but when he saw that their faces had barely changed at all and they didn’t move away from him, he felt at peace — more so now than ever. He felt naked and exposed, but nobody used it against him.

Nancy reached for him and gave him a hug, a bit awkward because of the angle, but still. She tousled his hair and smiled as she sat back again and Dustin slapped him on the back, grinning so much that his teeth showed. They were unnaturally perfect and gleaming even in the dark. Mike felt overwhelmed by the affection.

”Mom would be proud of you, Mike, just so you know,” Nancy told him solemnly, catching his eyes and without looking away she continued, ”And dad too. He may not express it a lot but he loves us and he wants us to be happy. The only reason why he seems disapproving of it is because he’s afraid your life will be more difficult and he doesn’t want it to be.”

”And it’ll get easier over time, I’m sure,” Max added.

She had taken her shoe off and massaged her swollen ankle in the meanwhile, her posture hunched and improper. She was never particularly ladylike herself, Mike had noticed, she never sat with her legs crossed or her back straight. For a while he wondered if she was also queer, but it seemed like her lack of prissy mannerism was simply a part of her personality.

”I never understood why people don’t like it when boys like boys and girls like girls,” Eleven said. Her brows were pulled together and her mouth was pulled a little to the side, ”I know that they don’t because I’ve learned it, but I never understood why. I don’t think people liking each other is a big problem that needs to be stopped or anything. There are other things in the world that we should worry about instead."

”It’s complicated, but times are changing," Nancy said. She turned to Mike, "It’s unfortunate that you and Will had to grow up in the ’80’s, which I can only imagine wasn’t super fun with the disease and everything... but as people in general become more accepting, I’m sure dad will too. He’s so nervous, you know. He’s afraid of everything and he never has any opinions of his own, he only agrees with what everybody else says to make sure they accept him.”

”I suppose,” Mike said. He honestly didn’t care that much, he had stopped seeking his father’s approval a long time ago.

”Speaking of you and Will, are —”

Dustin was interrupted by Lucas’ voice yelling and the sound of the dragon roaring. The thundering steps came closer at an alarming step, sending tremblings through the mountain. Some tiny rocks fell from the ceiling of the cave. Mike immediately got on his feet, bolting towards the opening to see what was going on.

”THE BOULDER!” Lucas shouted, running at full speed in through the opening of the cave, crashing into Mike so he was knocked over, ”THE BOULDER, DUSTIN!”

”What?!” Dustin’s eyes were shut wide open.

He watched Mike and Lucas in confusion, but then he lifted his gaze and laid his eyes on the large boulder which waited by the opening. The bafflement washed off, and he hurried over to it, rushed out of the cave without a moment of hesitation. He titled his head backwards, inspected the immense sphere. He seemed intimidated but also determinate. He felt along the surface with his hands, which had grown to be quite sturdy and calloused cover the course of a couple of hours. Those were hands that could move mountains, and the shape of his palms fit perfectly over the boulder’s surface. With a heavy groan, he pushed. The boulder moved ever so slightly. He pushed again. The rock surely weighed several tons, its diameter was much taller than Dustin himself, and yet he managed to move it to the side.

The dragon was closer than it had been before, the steps were so loud that it felt like a whole earthquake every time the feet slammed against the ground, which was now their roof. The furious breathing and growling made Mike’s knees weaken. It was almost as if his body adapted to the dragon’s presence, as if his heartbeat followed the rhythm of its steps.

Suddenly a whole rain of tiny rocks and shards fell from the ceiling and it was apparent that the dragon was right above them. Mike shielded his head from the debris, shut his eyes, hoped that the cave wouldn’t fall in. The whole cave was shaking, it was hard to even remain standing upright.

”Shit!” Nancy gasped as a rather big piece fell right on her head.

The air was now filled with dust. Like symphony, they started coughing all at once as the dust went into their lungs. It was hard to see anything too and as the opening became ever narrower, even lesser light managed to enter the cave.

Dustin pushed until the boulder had covered the majority of the opening before slipping into the cave again. He closed the last feet from the inside, leaving only a small gap to allow some air to enter the cave. He had done it all by himself. He was already drenched in sweat, his hair stuck to his forehead but he had a victorious smile on his lips.

The dragon roared furiously outside. Through the gap Mike could see its yellow eyes peering in. Dustin remained with his back against the boulder. The only thing keeping him apart from the dragon was that rock, which was large but so was the beast.

Suddenly a set of razor-sharp claws were squeezed in through the gap. Dustin’s smile had faded. The mere size of them was intimidating enough, and seeing how close those weapons were to Dustin’s head made Mike queasy, but luckily they didn’t manage to grip the boulder. A moment later the claws were pulled back. Instead the dragon pushed with its head against the boulder, forcing Dustin to push back with all his strength in order to not let in budge.

”Lucas, you have to find a different opening,” Dustin hissed through clenched teeth.

”But —” Lucas swallowed ” — will you be okay here?”

”Yeah, if you fucking hurry. Go.”

Lucas nodded, threw a hesitant look behind him, and then he bolted away, pulling Mike along by his shirt sleeve.

”I’ll go too!” Max shuffled after them the best she could, her swollen ankle barely supporting her weight.

”You’re hurt, you stay here!” Lucas commanded.

Eleven apologized to Max for leaving her behind, and then she joined Lucas and Mike instead. Three of them stayed with Dustin, three of them went to look for a different opening, and two of them outside with the dragon. Mike felt better knowing that the dragon was trying to get to them rather than chasing Will, because something told him that they were at least safer than he was out in the open.

”Okay, so how do we deal with the fact that we can’t see?” Lucas muttered, stretching his hands out in front of him as the tunnel took a turn and the limited light offered in the cave disappeared out of sight. He almost fell over as his foot took a bad step on an uneven spot.

”We just have to manage,” Eleven said curtly.

She held onto Mike’s arm and Lucas held onto his other. The deeper into the mountain they got, the lower the temperature reached. It was barren so far, no bats or insects. It was dry too, devoid of liquids dripping or vegetation like in the cave systems in rainforests. The humidity of the lower parts of the mountain had gradually decreased as they had climbed higher. Here every inhale felt like filling the lungs with sheer sharpness and the throat felt rusty.

”There’s a parting here.” Lucas stopped in his tracks. ”My intuition says we should take left.”

”Then let’s go left. Your intuition is the best tool we have here.”

”Let’s take left then. Help me remember this, okay? Just in case I’d forget. Our first turn was left,” Lucas said, putting lots of emphasis on every syllable. Mike made a mental note and hoped that he’d remember it better than he remembered all the other mental notes he made, which he always forgot about in a matter of minutes anyway. Eleven hummed.

They kept moving forward. It was impossible to tell how far they had gone since they had no references other than their own intuition, which was heavily distorted by the circumstances. The dragon roared intermittently as a sweet reminder that they needed to hurry. Mike wondered if the dragon would fit in these tunnels, if they were safe as long as they were inside. There was nothing that could catch fire at least, so they wouldn’t burn to death. Probably. Mike literally had no idea, he only assumed things to calm himself down.

They went left, left, right, middle, left, middle, right.

Mike was getting increasingly claustrophobic and nauseous. He was fairly sure they were already lost and wouldn’t make it back in time. It felt like hours had passed and the sound of the dragon could barely be be heard at all, which could only mean that they were so far away that the roars didn’t reach them, or else something was seriously wrong.

”What if the dragon has already eaten everyone and left the mountain?” Mike said.

He had to swallow his anxiety or else he’d break down, which would only make the situation worse. This was not the time to get emotional. He wished that Lucas or Eleven could have offered him some comfort by telling him that they were surely fine, but they remained dead silent.

But then he heard something. It wasn’t Lucas and it wasn’t Eleven, and it wasn’t the dragon, Will, Dustin or anybody else that he knew. It was a simmer of voices, loud, sturdy voices. The sound of metals slamming against metals, singing and mechanics. And in the distance, at the very end of the tunnel which they currently walked through, he saw light. Yellow, vivid light, that of a hundred lanterns, the literal sight of ’the light at the end of the tunnel’.

”It’s the dwarfs!” Eleven exclaimed, cracking up in the most delighted smile.


	20. Chapter 20

The view was breathtaking. They stopped where the tunnel ended and the immense cave opened up instead, so large that it could probably contain an entire mountain inside itself. It was so deep that the bottom couldn’t even be seen, and above them it was cupped like a cupola with a brilliant diamond floating in the center. There were bridges everywhere, plateaus like streets along the walls which ran in a downhill spiral, wagons carrying metals, dwarfs with heavy tools over their shoulders and fires burning in open ovens where the tools were being repaired and crafted. It was much hotter here than in the tunnels and steam lingered in the air, making everything look a bit blurry.

”I wish Dustin was here to see this,” Mike said.

”No, that would be disastrous,” Lucas said, shaking his head, ”He’d never leave.”

”True.”

The dwarfs passed them without even looking their way. They wore the same type of attire as the dwarfs at Tinkerbell’s, rustic and massive pieces, and most of them had beards so long they could have tucked them into their belts. Mike guessed that the ones who didn’t have any beards were women, but their faces had features so robust that they hardly looked like women. Some traits that all dwarfs seemed to have in common were necks short like stumps, small eyes and broad shoulders. It was impressive how they seemed to have adapted so well to the environment which they lived in.

They appeared to be in a good mood altogether, laughing loudly every now and then, so loudly that it almost sounded like explosions came out of their throats. Mike overheard one of them say ’The underground capital will be done in no time’. Dustin had been right, they were expanding their territory.

”We need to ask someone.” Eleven left the safe spot at the end of the tunnel. She stomped right into the commotion before Mike could remind her that dwarfs are by nature hostile creatures who don’t appreciate visitors. The only thing he could do was follow her so she wouldn’t get into trouble. Lucas made a reluctant face but followed regardless.

Mike’s gaunt frame made him stand out conspicuously. His mannerisms even elected some laughter when a group of women walked by. They had probably never seen a man quite like him before, he figured, aside from Will of course. Remembering that Will was most highly respected person in the entire dimension made him feel a bit more confident because although they had no reason to care about Mike personally, Mike happened to be dear to Will and that was a value in itself.

”Sorry! Excuse me!” Mike called, a hand in the air.

”Who are you?” a dwarf grumbled. His beard was chestnut brown, tied with a leather piece near the end. With sturdy shoes on his feet, an axe over his shoulder and a body resembling a bulldog’s, he looked exactly what Mike had envisioned a dwarf to look like. He stopped for a moment, eyed the intruders up and down with a frown, ”Humans, huh? What are you doing here?”

”We need to find an escape route.” Mike tried to sound confident, fearing that the dwarf wouldn’t listen if he sensed any hesitation in his voice. Mike also carried his head high, his spine straight, trying his best to not come across as an awkward college student. Curt and straight to the point was the best way to communicate with dwarfs, he knew, so after a deep inhale he simple presented, ”Will the Wise needs out help. There’s a dragon out there.”

”A dragon?” The dwarf tasted the word, for a moment his face softened and unease flashed in his eyes. He looked over his shoulder. None of the other dwarfs stopped. Then, with a powerful voice that startled Mike embarrassingly, he bellowed at his fellows, ”Hey! Have you heard anything about a dragon?”

”A dragon? No idea!” one of them said, a younger guy with a beard which only reached him to his mid-chest. He paused for a moment, scratched his head. Mike almost expected him to start biting his nails or roll his eyes like a brat. Then he kept walking. This nonchalance even seemed to bother the first dwarf, because he cussed under his breath and glared after the younger as he walked away without a care in the world.

”Haven’t heard anything about it!” another one said.

”Me neither.”

”We would know if there was one. Don’t fret, brother.”

”Get the humans out before they damage anything!”

All of them just walked right past. How they hadn’t noticed that there was a dragon right above their heads was beyond Mike, considering how loud the beast was. But the dwarf were noisy as well, in fact the underground city they had come to was almost unbearably raucous. They probably couldn’t even tell if the noise was caused by their own or something external. Were they even aware of how their activities made the whole mountain tremble?

”Well.” The dwarf looked around him with a disgruntled look on his face. Then he turned back to Mike, Eleven and Lucas. ”I’ll take you to the mountain king. And you, boy —” he pointed at Mike with a warning finger ” — no need to carry your head like that. Looks stupid.”

”Yes, sir!” Mike squeaked.

”’Sir…?’” The dwarf chortled, shrugging his head.

He led the way into a different tunnel which was lit up with lanterns along the walls. The three of them followed obediently. They received some odd looks but nobody said anything. The warmth of the bigger mine where the diamond floated slowly left their bodies again and the shivering cold of the tunnels replaced it like before.

”My name is Hezog,” the dwarf told them. He sounded less grumpy now, appearing to be glad to assist them, and his legs moved at a rapid pace as though he acknowledged the critical situation, but just like Dustin had struggled before, he frankly didn’t move forward fast regardless. Mike, who would rather have sprinted, had to stifle his impatience to keep his cool. At least they were getting somewhere now, he thought.

”I haven’t heard anything about the dragon,” Hezog said earnestly. He glanced over his shoulder to face them from time to time as he guided the way into the intricate tunnel system.

”Who blew the horns then?” Lucas asked him.

This made Hezog crack up. With great amusement, as though this was his favorite subject to talk about, he started explaining:

”The elves always blow their stupid horns when the dragons come, but they blow their stupid horns about everything and most of the time it’s for no reason at all. They just have all those useless rituals for everything, you know? Most of the time when they get fussy and blow their horns and light their fires it’s because of they sensed a disturbance in the moon phase or something, and they think it’s their duty to warn everyone about this, but their omens mean nothing. It’s all in vain, really, but nobody dares to question them because they’re elves.”

Mike knew better but to argue with it. He let Hezog ramble about the elves and everything that was wrong with them all the way to the grand entrance to the king’s chamber. It was impossible to know if it was located deeper into the mountain or closer to the surface, everything had looked all the same for a while now. The lanterns made it possible to see, but with the lack of landmarks along the way it was almost as bad as the perpetual darkness.

They finally reached the king’s chamber. The door was tall and wide, split in the middle, rounded at the top like a vault. It was embellished with gold and gemstones. Aside from the door itself, the tunnel was remarkably dull. Hezog knocked with his knuckles.

Mike flattened his shirt the best he could. Nothing could hide the dirt and the rips in it. Lucas, who had finally switched his horrendous outfit for something bit more subtile before leaving the lake community, also looked rather nervous. Eleven was the calmest out of the three. She said nothing, did nothing, only waited for the gate to open with her lips pressed together sternly.

It opened slowly. A guard stuck her head out. She carried an axe in her hand and had her hair put in a Celtic updo. She wasn’t as rough as the ones who worked in the mine, in fact she was quite gracious, but she looked strong nonetheless. Her face was placid and devoid of any creases, looking as if she had not made a single expression in her entire life.

”Hezog,” she said blandly. ”What brings you here?”

”These humans claim Will the Wise is in danger.”

”There’s a dragon outside,” Eleven filled him in.

She received a silencing glare but she didn’t look afraid. She simply tucked her hands into her pockets and waited. Mike wanted to tell her to not have her hands in her pocket, that it looked unprofessional, but on the other hand he had learned already perhaps some casual edge was exactly the type of demeanor that the dwarfs appreciated.

”So, the lady was right again, it seems,” the guard said equally tediously as before. She opened the door further and stepped aside. With a sweeping gesture she allowed them the enter the mountain king’s hall. Hezog hesitated for a second, but when the guard cocked her head for him to get in, he did so with his head lowered just slightly.

Mike had never seen so much gold in his life, and he was fairly sure there was no such place in the mundane world which hosted a treasure like the one he saw. The walls were covered in gold, the pillars were made out of gold, there were precious objects laying in reckless piled everywhere, weapons, goblets, coins, jewelry and curiosa. And in the center, there was a throne. And on top of the throne there was a dwarf, but it was misleading to refer to him as such as the man was at least twice as tall as Mike himself and surely five times as broad. His size made him look like a giant and he was the only dwarf Mike had seen whose hair was grey. He had to be a couple of hundred years old, Mike figured.

”Well, well, well. Hezog, my friend, it’s been a while!” The king croaked, drumming with his fingers on the armrests of the throne. His face was wrinkled and calloused, a scar which went across the entire cheek which immediately let the visitors know that he had seen things in his long life. He leaned back against the throne comfortably, grinned a little to himself. ”And Michael Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair and Jane Byers-Hopper, I welcome you to my mountain. I have not met you before.”

Neither of the three said anything. They threw nervous glances at one another, unsure of how to respond, if they were even supposed to respond at all. This only made the king chortle, entertained. Mike couldn’t determine if the king was actually intimidating, or if it was just his size and crown that made him feel insignificant.

”Shy, huh?” the king said. When he yet again didn’t receive any answer, he sighed. ”I know why you’re here. Lady Abebi has told me already. She can see into the future, that woman. Scary if you ask me. I received her message just a while ago but I didn’t think you’d actually show up.”

Abebi. Mike had been introduced to countless of people and places, he hardly remembered any names at all, but Abebi he remembered. She was the woman who had made them dinner that first evening in the windmill. And then it dawned on Mike, that of course she could see into the future, how else would she prepare food for so many if she didn’t know she’d have visitors? And she knew that Charlie would come too, although he was late. A shiver was sent down Mike’s spine as he realized. It was very unsettling to think about. This meant that the future was already decided in advance, didn’t it? That there was such a thing as fate?

”His majesty, can you help us?” Lucas asked.

”You don’t need my help, ranger.” His eyes were squeezed into thin shards and he shook his head slowly. ”This is not my battle, my fellow dwarfs won’t interfere.”

”But we don’t know how to fight dragons!” Mike pleaded, then as an afterthought he added, ”His majesty.”

”Are you sure about that?” The king teased. ”You know, I have heard there’s a paladin amongst you and I’m assuming it’s not the girl.” He pointed with a crooked finger at Eleven, who looked a bit upset about this. He even laughed at the idea, disdainfully. Eleven remained silent, but it seemed like she had to bite down her tongue to make a scene about it.

Mike swallowed. He was supposed to be the paladin, but was he really? No. Surely not. He had not sensed any difference in his behavior or mindset at all. He was still useless. Even Max seemed to have develop some remarkable speed, and zoomer wasn’t even a real thing.

”You mean that there is nothing you can do?” Eleven said, almost mockingly. She let her eyes wander around the chamber. Mike knew what she was thinking — ’if you’re that weak, why do you have all these nice things?’ — and Mike could only agree.

”His majesty,” Lucas added, once again a moment too late. He smiled apologetically, gave Eleven a pleading look. ’Behave’.

But Eleven didn’t look the slightest remorseful about leaving the title out, perhaps she even did it on purpose. She ignored Lucas’ hint, but this was not time to get pride get in the way. She tucked her hair behind her ear, looking perfectly innocent to the untrained eye, but Mike knew she was annoyed.

The king scratched his beard and thought for a moment, his eyes absently locked at the ground in front of his throne. He didn’t seem to care the slightest about the omitting of his title. He almost seemed to be slumberous, but then he leaned back and straightened his back properly, becoming even taller than before. He clasped his hands together, which almost seemed impossible to do as each of his fingers were embellished with heavy rings and gemstones. Thinking about it, even his eyes appeared to be brilliant behind the sagged eyelids. When his gaze met Mike’s, he could swear those were actual emeralds.

”I have learned that sometimes the best thing you can do is stay out,” the king began, in the voice of someone who was about to tell a long story, ”When you’re young you tend to think that you can always help, that your assistance is always needed or that you can make a difference, but that is not true and the difference that you make is not always good. You have to choose your battles wisely, stay out if you cannot actually contribute with anything of value or else you may only interfere and ruin the other people’s chances of winning. This is one of those times. ”

He appeared pleased with the way he had phrased it. He smiled contently at himself. It even seemed like he had said it more for the sake of just saying it than to actually tell his visitors anything, much like how Mike often held powerful speeches in the shower that nobody would ever hear. The king was quiet for so long that Mike thought he was finished, but then he continued in a less pompous way,

”Lady Abebi has foreseen that you shall do this alone. I don’t know much about that sort of witch craft, prophecies and such. I’m not even sure if I believe in it, I normally don’t, but Lady Abebi is a sharp woman. She has foreseen the past before and that time I did not listen. That’s how I got this.” The king pointed at the scar on his face, grinning viscously. ”I can battle anyone, but I will not battle fate for that is a battle I cannot win.”

He had made his mind up already. Mike knew that there was nothing he could do to convince him otherwise. He tried to catch Lucas’ and Eleven’s eyes in an attempt to see what they were thinking, but they were both looking straight ahead now.

”His majesty, what exactly did she tell you?” Lucas inquired.

”That you would come and that you would fight.”

”That’s all?” Mike did not believe that, ”Did she say who was going to win?”

”No. She said nothing about it.” The king crossed one leg over the other, leaned back comfortably. This was apparently not a man who thought of human lives as anything of value, Mike thought sneeringly, and he questioned whether he was to trust at all. If he hadn’t addressed them by their names when they first entered the chamber, he had contributed no proof of that he knew anything about them whatsoever, even less so about their fate.

The king said nothing more, just rested on his throne, bathed in the luster from his treasures the way someone would bathe in sunlight on a summer’s day. Mike once more wondered what the king had done to earn his crown. Whatever it was, it must have been a long time ago, the man before him was stale and not particularly impressive if you could see beyond his size and wealth. It reminded him of his own father, who still bragged about his glory days in his youth, especially about that one time when he made the final goal in a hockey cup, completely neglecting the fact that his goal had since been overshadowed by a myriad of other goals.

”Well, thank you, his majesty, for taking your time,” Mike said, his voice tartly polite, ”We have to go. Will needs our help.”

Lucas and Eleven both thanked him too, and then they turned around to leave through the same gate that they had entered through. The king seemed rather disappointed by their departure, he grumbled something under his breath. He told Hezog to take care.

The guard bowed her head as she opened the door for them. Mike was just about to leave the chamber when something pulled at his shirt. Startled, he turned around, but there was nothing there. When his eyes dropped towards the floor, a set of large eyes which didn’t blink as much as they should stared back at him.

”Tiny one?”

The tiny one nodded. He was now tall enough to reach Mike to right above his knees, but he was skinny like a stick figure. A bug creeped on his shoulder. It was astonishing to see him in bright light. Mike had just barely caught a glimpse of him when they had dinner at Abebi’s since he spent most of the evening under the bunkbed. He was dark, but not quite in the same way as Abebi was dark, nor Lucas, it was a different type of dark which made him look like a shadow come to life, transparent somehow. But most conscious was the sword which he carried.

It was much longer than his own height, surely heavier too, with a sturdy grip and a smooth edge which reflected the gold and crystals in the chamber in its clear surface. He held it towards Mike. He was almost too distracted by the sight of the tiny one to even accept the gift, but without really thinking he took it. It wasn’t as heavy as it looked, but he could feel the pressure in his hands when he held it in front of him in his open palms. The slightest friction and the edge would cut his hand open, he could feel the sharpness even without testing it.

”What…? Is this for me?” Mike floundered.

The tiny one nodded eagerly. His hands were curled up near his belly, his head titled a little to the side. As strange as he was, he was quite adorable. He skipped a little from foot to foot, as Mike had remembered him doing when showing Charlie his bugs that evening.

”Ehm —” Mike wasn’t sure what to say ” — Thank you. It’s very nice, but I don’t know how to use it.”

”You’ll know when the time comes,” the king said. Mike turned around to face him again. He had his elbow on the armrest and his chin in his palm, looking a bit dejected. ”You know, nobody ever feels ready to fight a battle. There will never be a day when we feel ready to do something that scares us so much, especially not when we know that we could die.”

Hezog blinked as if he couldn’t believe this. The king must have noticed because he frowned and flicked with his hand in the air as though it wasn’t a big deal. But Hezog still stared. Mike just dumbly held the sword in his hands and didn’t know what to do with himself.

”Even I have been afraid in my life, Hezog, that’s nothing new!” the king scowled. Muttering, making each word bleed into the other in a grumble as though he didn’t want to even say it in the first place he continued, ”Everyone has. Everyone has doubted their abilities at some point, expect for the ones who were not meant to survive in the first place, folks without any insight or awareness at all inside their skulls. But you can still choose to do your best, even if you don’t know exactly what your best is. Usually it’s a lot more than you think before you have no other choice but to give it your all. It’ll come to you. Now go, before Will the Wise gets hurt.” He flicked with his hand impatiently.

Mike’s legs carried him out of the chamber without him really knowing that they did. He had never held a sword before. There was something magnificent about it, something that connected him to the thousands of people who had carried swords before himself. Medieval knights, the graceful nobles, the globetrotters, the vikings, the revolutionist and the royals. The weapon carried so much of human history inside of it, in its mere shape and its purpose. Humans had always fought, sometimes out of braveness, sometimes out of fear.

Mike had no idea what he was supposed to do, but he sensed a cordial calling coming from a part of his brain or maybe even his heart which told him — he was ready. Somewhere deep within he really was, well shrouded under the layers of his common self, he sensed something rousing, an energy which had rested in torpidity his whole life. And without knowing how, he was grabbed the sword by the grip and it felt like it belonged there.

”You will be faster without me,” Hezog said, itching his scalp, looking a bit troubled. ”Us dwarfs are not made for sprinting, I’m afraid.”

He reached for one of the lanterns on the wall. He took it off its hanger and handed it to Eleven. She seemed a bit confused at first but she grabbed the handle on top. Inside there was a candle which burned stubbornly no matter how the lantern was moved around. It was made out of brass and looked a bit like someone had just hammered it in a rush.

”You will know the way out, won’t you?” Hezog grunted, nodding at Lucas.

”We sort of got lost on the way here. I was actually searching for a different opening to get out of the mountain, instead I found you.” Lucas peered into the tunnel ahead of them, his mouth pulled into a thin line. It looked just like all the other tunnels, only the royal gate in the middle made it stand out of the rest. There was a parting at the end, but as usual no signs which indicated where the tunnels lead to. ”But I guess I’ll manage,” he said at last.

”I don’t know much of anything but mining, but Abebi is a clever woman and her ability to predict is quite incredible. I think you found us because you were supposed to. If you hadn’t come to us, you wouldn’t have found me, and I wouldn’t have brought you to the king, and then you wouldn’t have met that little weirdo kid.” Hezog paused. His eyes wandered from Lucas to Mike. The corner of his mouth was pulled a little upwards when he said, ”And that means that you wouldn’t have that sword in your hands now.”

Mike felt a bit dizzy about the whole deal. It was like vertigo, the same feeling that could awash you when you thought about the vastness of the universe, viewed an immense building, stood at an astonishing height, as if it dawned on you all at once just how big everything was and how your life was just a fraction of the everything that existed, had existed and was yet to come, and how everything tied together in one way or another. Of course he knew it already, but to have hold the sword in his hands like the ultimate proof of it was almost too much to even comprehend.

”Perhaps you’re right. So you think I’ll find the way out now?” Lucas said.

”Yes, most certainly. Unless there’s something else you ought to do first, of course. But that’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own because I can certainly not foresee the future.”

”Thank you for everything, then.”

Mike lowered his head to show his gratitude. Hezog only frowned and muttered something about elvish nonsense. He also searched for the tiny one to thank him, but the shadow child was gone without a trace. They started walking through the tunnel, picking up the pace until they were actually running. Then, just before they reached the parting, Hezog yelled:

”And you, girl — just so you know, I’ve heard the stories about you! Keep kicking ass! I’m your biggest fan!”

Eleven cracked up in the most bubbly smile. She waved him goodbye with her free hand, held the lantern in the other. Hezog nodded stoutly. After that they didn’t look back anymore. They only paused for a split moment when Lucas looked first to his left and then to his right, and without any hesitation he said:

”Right. Let’s go.”

***

With the lantern allowing them to see ahead, Lucas navigation and a fair amount of adrenaline, they finally reached an opening further down the mountain, where the humidity was more prominent as before but the vegetation still not as dense as it was at the lower heights. Finally stepping outside the mountain was delightful. Here the air was fresh and it was so open that Mike actually felt startled for a moment, unsure of what to do with so much space around him.

”I fucking hate tunnels, have I ever mentioned that?” he said. He closed his eyes, let the wind caress his skin.

They wasted no time. With the same impatience as they had rushed through the mountain, they started making their way up. There were no staircase to be see, they had to find their own paths in the rocky terrain.They were not exactly sure where they were, only that they’d need to climb to get to Dustin and the others who were hopefully holding up in the cave which they had previously left.

”It’ll take forever to get up there again,” Eleven said, a concerned crease between her eyebrows. She gazed uphill, where nothing much could be seen expect for the monochromatic mountain that they had already grown so sick of.

”We’ve got no time to lose.” Mike went as fast as he could. Somehow, it felt like the weight of the sword in his hand made him stronger. It was solely psychological, but as his sheer will was stronger than ever and for the first time he actually felt a sense of purpose, which actually made his legs move faster. Lucas could keep up but Eleven struggled a bit behind.

The luminous city loomed in behind them, now darker than it had been when they reached the summit, with fewer windows lit up in the houses and lesser activity, but just like any large city it didn’t sleep. It was surely a good bit past midnight now. If anything, the darkness of the night had started to soften. There was no sun to be seen at the horizon, but the morning seemed to approach little by little. If they could only make it through the night, they’d be fine, Mike thought, allowing the hope to fill him up.

”Do you think we should have stayed with them?” Eleven sounded uncertain, her voice full of doubt and regret. She was now out of breath but kept the pace up regardless. Mike was forced to slow down a little, realizing that his will alone couldn’t supply his muscles with oxygen when the steep climb got the best of him.

”No, definitely not,” Lucas said. It seemed like he was convincing himself as much as he tried to convince Eleven. ”This was meant to happen, remember?”

Holding on firmly to this belief was their only comfort. They trudged through the hostile barrenness as fast as they could, but like always, they still had more to give when they had no other choice. When they heard the dragon shriek and saw a bright flash of light, they managed to squeeze some more strength out of themselves and so they darted towards the commotion, without really knowing what awaited them there.

***

Mike’s heart sank when he saw the boulder shattered into pieces, now just debris around the cave opening where their friends were supposed to be. He stumbled over the shards towards the opening. When he was close enough he saw that the cave was empty. They couldn’t hold the dragon back. They got eaten. Mike was sure of it. 

”DUSTIN! NANCY!” he yelled into the dark. ”STEVE! MAX! ARE YOU THERE?!”

No reply. Mike lowered the tip of the sword towards the ground, shook his head. No. It couldn’t be. This was not how it was supposed to end. They hadn’t even fought yet. Eleven held the lantern up to see further into the cave. Its soft light let them peer all the way into the very back where the tunnel system started, but it was devoid of life. Not even a bat. Only lots of soot and black dust, as if the whole cave had been set on fire. Mike put his hand on the wall near the opening. When he removed it, it was black, and the wall had a handprint which wasn’t as burnt as the rest.

Ashes. What if they were all ashes now? Mike wiped his hand on his shirt, desperately trying to get it off himself. Ashes. No, no, no. It couldn’t be. He swept his sweaty hair out of his face, leaving some soot on both his cheek and his forehead. His teeth were chattering now, and no matter how firmly he tried to clench his jaws shut instead, they wouldn’t stop. He was cold, so very cold, as though his soul had frozen and he was already half dead, a ghastly phantom. It couldn’t be.

”Max?” Eleven wailed. ”Come on… MAX?! DUSTIN?! SOMEONE?!”

Lucas watched the dragon roam, eyes flickering back and fourth as it moved. They were still too far away to properly see what was going on, but it was clearly upset about something and the light they had witnessed before had to be Will’s fireball or some other type of spell. Like before, the dragon’s feet sent intense vibrations through the ground every time they slammed against the mountain’s surface. Some more dust and crumbles fell from the inner ceiling of the cave.

”Guys, I think we better hurry…” Lucas said, not letting the dragon go with his eyes.

”GUYS! PLEASE! IF YOU’RE IN THERE —”

Mike couldn’t conceal his distress, it flooded him and overpowered his senses. He hands were rickety and his voice unsteady. He choked back the tears which were threatening to pour at any second now. He skipped from one piece of the boulder and wandered into the cave with rapid steps. Not a clue left behind them. The spot where they had gathered like a cosy scout troop around a bonfire was desolate and forsaken, as though that moment had never even happened at all. He stomped all the way into the very back, peered into the tunnels. Darkness. Of course. What else did he expect?

”Mike, we have to go!” Lucas urged. ”They’re not in there!”

Mike nodded, his whole brain in a hazy state. He turned around and hurried out of the cave. His sensed we reawaken by the dragon and by Will’s voice. Will. Perhaps he couldn’t save his friends and his sister, but he could still save Will. A fury kindled inside of him, a boundless, burning wrath which he had never felt before. That dragon had to die now. His grip around the sword tightened until his knuckles went white.

Its size became ever more immense the closer they came. Mike could now distinguish both Will and Charlie, taking turns distracting the beast. They waved with their arms in the air, shouted things, ran and dodged, looking perfectly in synch with one another. The dragon whipped with its tail in the air, the sound alone let everyone know just how powerful it was. It threw its head towards Will, then back to Charlie, then back to Will again. It was overtly furious about the game which they played with it.

”WILL!” Mike yelled.

When Will saw them coming, he just stared for a split second, blinked in disbelief, his face completely blank. His chest filled up with something, perhaps it was relief, perhaps it was the feeling of a bad omen, either way that moment of hesitation was enough for the rhythm to be set off.

From the moment the dragon turned its head and spotted Lucas, himself and Eleven, to the impact of the tail hitting Eleven in the guts, time just proceeded a thousand times slower than normal. It really happened in slow-motion. Mike had enough time to realize what was coming, he saw the fierceness of the dragon’s eyes, he saw the tail pull backwards, he knew it was about to swing forward in their direction — but he didn’t have enough time to do anything to stop it.

He didn’t remember throwing himself on the ground, but the the sight of Eleven not dodging along with him was burnt into his memory forever in that moment. Her facial expression, how her scrawny limbs were met by the brutal force of scales, flesh and muscles, the sound of her breath getting knocked out of her, how she was hurled through the air and the collision when human body met the solid rock. She didn’t even scream. Probably didn’t even have enough time to make the sound. After the collision she neither groaned, whined, yelled or cried. She was just quiet. That silence was the most daunting sound of all. Mike didn’t even hear the dragon’s roar over the silence which echoed in his skull.

His mouth was so dry that he couldn’t produce a sound. He wanted to yell her name, every cell in his body yelled her name, but the only words his mind would let him think was ’Dear fate, don’t let her die like this’.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: descriptions of injuries

”Are you sure this is the way?” Steve muttered.

Dustin didn’t even answer. He kept trudging forward equally determined as before. He could see even when the rest couldn’t, naturally giving him the role as the leader. The tunnels had looked all the same for a while now. Max had already declared that she thought the best thing to do was to turn around and head back to the cave before they got lost while Nancy was sure they were already lost.

Nancy had sensed it in the hesitant way Dustin choose where to go, how slowly they creeped forward and how frequently he sighed. Every such inkling became very apparent in the silence, there was no way to conceal a sigh, a slip or even a muffled mumble. With no sight to rely on, it seemed like the other senses had improved significantly, but it was probably just an illusion because they paid more attention to them.

”I’m sure they’re back already,” Max insisted, ”We don’t have to do this anymore. They’re probably waiting for us in the cave at this point.”

Her ankle still hurt but now it allowed her to walk with less of a limp. She clung onto Steve’s arm and kept the pace up despite her wish to just head back instead. Whenever they stopped she could feel the throbbing aches, but as soon as she moved the only thing she could think about was the unevenness in the ground, the bumps and the edges. The tunnels were clearly manmade, the only thing that wasn’t was the cleft through which they had entered the mountain, but they were not very smooth of symmetrical.

”Did you see how that dragon smashed the whole boulder into pieces, Max?” Dustin sneered. He glared over his shoulder but she couldn’t see the look he sent her way. It was useless to communicate non-verbally when his friends were blind to all body language. ”There’s probably nothing left of that cave anyway, just ruins.”

Leaving the cave wasn’t exactly a choice. The dragon gave them no other option but to retreat and hide inside the tunnels where it couldn’t reach them. Dustin’s heartbeat was still erratic. One second he had his back against the boulder, felt its secure solidness behind him, thought that if he could only hold it back by strength everything would be okay — the next second the solidness he leaned against shattered into hundreds of pieces and he fell backwards.

It was only for a moment, but when he lay flat on the ground and opened his eyes, he could see the citrine eyes stare back at him, and the vision was still there behind his eyelids every time he closed his eyes. Strangely, he didn’t see his whole life flash by like he thought it always did when someone was about to die, but then again… perhaps it wasn’t his turn to die yet.

Something, he wasn't sure what, brought him back on his feet. The next thing he knew, they had bolted into the tunnels and the dragon roared into the empty cave left behind them and an intense, scorching heat was sent like a wave through the tunnels. For a moment there was a bright light, then everything when dark again.

”We have to get deeper!” Nancy had said.

Dustin wasn’t sure exactly where he was going, but he knew that they had no other choice but to go in the opposite direction. Anything was better than what they had just left behind. And so they had walked, nobody knew for how long.

”Why are there no lights anywhere? Where the hell are the dwarfs?” Steve had complained and whined non-stop since they left the cave. He sounded irritated and dejected, but everyone knew it was because he was nervous. He needed something to blame for these unpleasant conditions, a target to pour his worries over. Half of the time he didn’t elicit any response at all from the other three, but sometimes Dustin told him exactly what was going on. That’s when it became apparent that he wasn’t actually asking those questions for the sake of having them answered.

Dustin’s matter-of-factly answers meant nothing, but he still explained everything. Max suspected it was a matter of pride, Dustin couldn’t let Steve insult the dwarfs since he was one of them. It was so immature, but when she told them both to cut it out, they ganged up against her instead.

”There are no lights in these tunnels because it’s keeps the center safe. Only dwarfs can see in this dark so only the dwarfs can find the underground city which is located deeper into the mountain, that’s why, Steve!” Dustin said, his tongue sharp like a whip.

”Was this Will’s idea? Did he seriously think this was a good idea? ’So, in case I’ll ever get chased by a fucking dragon, I have to make sure nobody can help me by creating a stupid fucking dwarf kingdom inside the mountain that nobody else can navigate through, so we all die.’ That doesn’t sound very wise to me. Where did he get the title Will the Wise from, again?” Steve chortled mirthlessly.

If the circumstances had been different, they would have laughed at his rather childish remarks, but now they were met by stiff silence. Nancy had to force her own comments down, knowing that it wouldn’t help to argue. She reminded herself repeatedly that Steve was just freaking out, throwing fists at anything within reach, and if she said anything at all she’d most likely become the next target.

Steve knew just as well as everyone else that Will wasn’t stupid, he didn’t need to be lectured. In moments like this Nancy was grateful for the years of her life that she spent being a prudent, well-behaved girl. She had mastered the art of turning disapproval into pity and pity into understanding and understanding into solace. Sedateness was rarely recognized as a strength, but oh what a mess the world would be in a world with imbecilic testosterone-gremlins.

”You hear that?” Dustin had stopped abruptly.

”EL!” It was Mike.

”Careful, don’t move!” That was Charlie.

Their voices were distorted as they traveled through the mountain, but they were not far away. Actually, it sounded like it had traveled through the tunnels and not right through the solidness between themselves and the surface level. There had to be an opening somewhere nearby.

Dustin looked at the others, expecting them to look back at him as they would surely have done if they could see one another. Now they stared vacantly into nothingness, just listening. Nancy held Max’s hand in a cramp like grip. The disgruntled crease between Steve’s eyebrows had finally smoothened out. Now he looked absolutely terrified.

”Dustin.” Nancy searched for him with her eyes. They settled for a spot ahead of herself but it wasn’t where Dustin actually stood. If she had actually looked right at him, he would have winced back. Her eyes were demanding, fierce. This was the Nancy that could shoot with a riffle. ”You have to get us out of here. Now.”

”Yes.” There was nothing else he could say. He wet his lips, nodded.

Then he grabbed Steve’s arm again and hurried as fast as his legs let him towards the end of the tunnel, through which he was now confident the sound had entered through. When they finally got there, all there was left was a turn to the right. At the end of that tunnel an opening gaped, like a mirage in the desert. The darkness wasn’t as dense out there. For the first time since the fire burst had extinguished, they could see.

Max let out a sigh of relief and pulled everyone into a hug. Steve slapped Dustin on the back. All their cynical comments and bickering were immediately forgotten. The four of them now ran alongside instead of in a line towards the opening. Nancy’s dress was ripped even more than before, billowing loosely like random strips of cloth around her legs as she ran.

They had just made it out of the tunnel in time to see the dragon in the distance. It had raised to its back legs. The long neck curved like an S-shape in the air with its head angled downwards. On the ground beneath they could just barely perceive the tiny figures which were their friends. One lay down on the ground motionlessly. Eleven. A bit further away Will stood with a sphere of light forming between his palms. Mike and Lucas tried to get closer to Eleven, but stood petrified with their faces turned upwards towards the dragon which toward above them.

”Get back!” Charlie shouted at them, ”Get back! She’ll come down!”

Mike and Lucas stumbled backwards, not letting go of the dragon with their eyes. Mike tripped over an unevenness on the ground, fell back on his butt. He glances to his left, stretched his arm out. There was something resplendent there, something made of metal.

”He’s got a sword!” Max exclaimed.

The dragon slammed its front legs down. Something cracked. For a moment Max was sure it was someone’s spine, but it was too loud. Then she saw the mountain. It was the mountain that had cracked. Another gaping cleft had opened up in the ground, not big enough to fall through, but enough to be frightening. It was like in apocalyptic movies.

Mike had just reached the sword with his fingertips. He pulled it closer and wrapped his hand around the grip. He was back on his feet. Lucas tugged at his arm, pointed towards Eleven.

”Here!” Will threw the fireball at the beast, making it swing its neck around to face him instead. The ball didn’t do much damage. It seemed like nothing could penetrate the rough scales. The dragon just seemed agitated by the attack, but the distraction allowed Mike and Lucas to get to Eleven. She still hadn’t moved at all.

”Is she dead?” Steve’s voice scarcely more than a whisper.

***

Mike knelt down and put the sword down beside him. He shook her by the shoulder, vigorously so her body moved along with his hand. It was limp, didn’t put up any resistance. Her leg lay in an unnatural angle, she was bleeding from scratch wounds all over her arms, legs and face. It was nauseating to see, Mike had to force himself to look. The most alarming thing despite everything was that her chest was still, it didn’t rise and fall like it was supposed to.

”For fucks sake, El, not now, not now!” Mike pleaded.

Lucas put his fingers to the pulse at her neck, then at her wrist. Sweat trickled down his forehead but he kept his cool. He didn’t even flinch when the dragon roared, as though he was so focused on his task that he didn’t even hear it.

”It’s not too late, Mike. I’ll take care of this. You go help Will. Kill that fucking dragon so we can get out of here. Please.”

Lucas looked up at him, his face so stern that Mike knew it was an order, but he hesitated. He couldn’t just leave like that. His eyes dropped to Eleven anew. Lucas held his palm over her forehead, pulled at her eyelids with his thumb. Mike saw no sign of life. His throat tightened alarmingly.

”It’s okay.” Lucas nodded firmly. He didn’t have to countenance of someone who had just witnessed death, which said a lot since he was the ranger. He knew more about healing than Mike ever would. All he could do was trust him.

Mike grabbed his sword and stood up. Eleven’s blood had stained the cliff around her, not because she was bleeding floods, but because she had slid and rolled over the surface when she was hurled away by the dragon’s tail. Mike left the morbid scene behind and walked with determined steps towards the dragon. It had turned around, left both Will and Charlie to look after it in confusion. Something else had caught its attention, something further away.

”Hey, shitface!” Mike yelled. He even startled himself with the boldness of his voice.

The dragon didn’t mind him. At first the sudden sense of safety felt like a vacuum, but then he heard the stream of frantic swearing from the other side of the cliff. All at once he was awash with profound relief, feeling that this was the best gift he could ever receive. He thought he’d never hear those voices again. But then it dawned that the dragon was heading their way and so the relief dissolved just as quickly.

Mike ran after the dragon with both hands around the sword. His brain had narrowed into one single lane. It was clearer than it had ever been. The sense of invincibility, of being eternal pumped through his veins at the same rate as his blood. It gave his gangly body a strength it usually never had. Now he knew it, he felt it, that this was his power, and he wasn’t afraid anymore.

Perhaps the dragon sensed that, because its neck curved and the yellow eyes looked back at him. They were nervous. There was no way to see it visually, but Mike felt the fear in them. The rattle of the scales were not intimidating, they were uncertain, as if the dragon didn’t know how to move anymore and they just chattered aimlessly rather than as a warning that a striking movement was about to come.

”Come on then! Here!” Mike shouted, his chin lifted high.

”Careful, Mike!” Will cried from behind him. ”She’s —”

The dragon turned to face him properly. It was the most civilized move so far. It was not as ruthless and feral as that of a wild beast, it was almost human. It tried to say something. The eyes narrowed, staring right at him. Mike didn’t flinch.

”Mike, please, you —” Will was desperate.

But it was all good. It was a fair duel. The dragon didn’t look anywhere but on Mike, and Mike looked back. Dustin, Nancy, Steve and Max had approached and stopped the moment they saw what was happening. Dustin shook his head slowly. No, no, no. Nancy clutched the fabric over his chest, eyes not even blinking. Mike didn’t see any of that.

”She’s alive!” Lucas exclaimed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Not even this did Mike register.

The dragon took the first step forward. Mike took the next. Wherefrom this knowledge, this arcane ritual, had come and how it had made itself at home in his mind, he didn’t know, but it felt like he had done this a thousand times before and won every single battle he had ever fought. The sword felt like an old friend in his hands, the adrenaline and the calmness a harmonized balance which felt like home.

Will had stopped doing his magic. He stood transfixed on the spot, watching. His mouth hung open, his eyes were open wounds which exposed all the fear, regret, sorrow, hope and affection that he held within himself.

”Well, then.” Mike titled his head to the side, stretching out the muscles of his neck.

It was like a dance, a fierce dance. The dragon attacked first. Mike threw himself to the side, avoided it without a scratch. After that the battle became a smooth routine of moving forward, then back, of attacking, then defending, skipping, dodging, swinging and thrusting. It was so smooth that it was strange. Where were the injuries? Where was the blood? The fire? The pain? It was too easy. It was taking too long.

The dragon weighed several tons, it was tall and powerful, the teeth were sharp and the jaws were strong. There was frankly no way Mike could have won, not even with his determination and his sword, and yet he fought with everything he had, thinking that he was being heroic. Like a fool, he was deceived. The sunrise was already upon them. Like he had predicted, they would make it out alive if they could only make it until dawn, but he hadn’t anticipated this. It was too smooth.

It wasn’t until Mike found himself with his foot on the dragon’s throat and the sword pointing at the most vulnerable spot, where the skin was softer and easily pierced, that he realized — the dragon never intended to win. As this dawned on him his chest filled up with fury, he was boiling with anger. He kicked with his foot on the dragon’s neck. The dragon didn’t even lift its head, it remained still on the ground as though he had already killed it.

”Is that everything you have?!” he spat, ”Come on! Do it properly you fucking — I know you can do better! What’s all of this?!”

The dragon lay down with its neck flat along the ground, the tail still in a curved shape behind it. Eyes closed. Slow breaths. The wings were folded neatly, almost looking like a blanket which someone had draped over the massive body. The legs had folded beneath it without any premonition, for a moment Mike had thought that he had actually killed it, but he hadn’t even touched it.

The early sun rays lit created a glowing shard of light along the horizon. The sky was a transparent dark with only a few stars still visible. It had started to shift in a purple shade with some pinks and oranges budding like a halo around the sun. In this light everything looked flat, all the shadows blended in with the general colors of the environment and nothing highlighted the angles that protruded from the flatness either.

Mike was dripping with sweat but he was not tired. He had more to offer, more strength to show. This disappointment, this cruel humiliation, it was stabbing at his pride. He kicked the dragon again. All this struggling for what — a dragon that keeled over out of laziness and refused to even finish the battle properly?! As morbid as it was, Mike craved death. Either the dragon was supposed to die, or else himself, that was the way it was supposed to be! That’s how the noble knights got their titles! That’s how history was made! The honor! The glory! The victory! What the heck was this —?! 

”What’s wrong with you?!” Mike yelled, ”Don’t you realize that I could kill you right now if I wanted to?!”

”Mike,” Will said softly. He tried to wrap his arm around his shoulder, but Mike shrugged him off. Will winced back at the brusque reaction, but didn’t leave his side.

The fact that Will had dared to interfere like this, just randomly approach him during a duel, and how the others were not crippling with fear anymore as they watched made Mike irrationally upset. Of course it was a good thing that they had all made it out alive, but this anticlimax was so bad that all he wanted was cry like a child. This humiliation, this acidic embarrassment… it creeped under the skin, itching and burning. If Mike had known that the dragon didn’t intend on killing them to begin with, why did it have to hurt Eleven?!

She was still laying down flat on her back. Her leg had been placed in its natural position, but it was clearly broken. Charlie and Lucas had done their best to help her. The pain didn’t seem to even reach her consciousness as she drifted in and out of haze. Dustin had offered to help, suggested that he could carry her to a hospital if there was such a thing in the city below, but in the end they concluded that moving her could possible hurt her further, and trying to get away could ruin the flow of the duel. Even if the duel wasn’t getting anywhere, that at least meant that it didn’t get any worse.

”What is wrong with this dragon, Will?!” Mike had intended to sound angry, but all that came out was a lame whine, ”Why is it like this?! It’s not dead, is it? I didn’t kill it, I know I didn’t. Did it have a heart attack or something?!” Then, as an afterthought he blurted, grabbing his own head in distress, ”It’s taking a fucking nap! In the middle of our battle!”

”I’m not taking a nap.”

Mike flinched back. The voice had the softness of a woman’s, but the resonance of something that echoed in a massive chamber, striking, clear. The dragon had moved at last, its mouth had moved and its eyes had opened. They were as bright as before, watching him shrewdly. It could speak. Why did it suddenly —?! Even Will was surprised by this, gaping in disbelief.

Mike was tempted to stab it for this mockery, but the fury was stilled as soon as the dragon spoke, as though his common senses were brought back to work after having thrived on instinct alone for so long. He stared at the dragon, the immense body laying on the ground, the neck, the head and the scales, but now he couldn’t see a beast anymore. It was a person. A beast wouldn’t calmly tell you it wasn’t taking a nap if you accused it to do so.

”So what are you doing then? Just chilling or what?” Mike sneered.

He heard Lucas and Dustin laugh in the background. ’Oh god, Mike…’, he heard Nancy sigh. He knew that he sounded like a brat talking to someone their own age, not a warrior speaking to their enemy. It just couldn’t be helped. Although no longer uncivilizedly furious, he was still bitter. The spite was simmer inside, its steam urgent to ooze out somewhere.

”I’m offering myself to you,” the dragon said humbly. 

”Why? I never asked you to. Fight me.”

”Mike, for fucks sake…” Will mumbled, stifling his laughter.

Then he shook his head and withdrew back to the others, leaving Mike to solve this on his own, whatever intricate business he had to settle with this dragon. He sat down on the cliff and watched. This was not the audience Mike had wished for. He wanted hundreds of people to watch him step up on the podium to get his paladin title, he wanted them to cheer and adore him for his bravery — not an audience of eight who were laughing at him for not being polite enough with the dragon he was supposed to have killed already.

”You are a good fighter. You have proved yourself worthy. I now wish to be your companion.”

The dragon’s voice was slow and proper, each word pronounced crisply. She lifted herself carefully. off the ground. Mike didn’t step back. She only hoisted herself up on her feet again, but didn’t do anything else. She kept her head hanging low so that Mike’s eyes were almost on the same level as hers. Her eyes were as big as his entire head, if not bigger. If she had opened her jaws she could have devoured him in a single bite, but she didn’t.

”What?” Mike said, now softly.

”Let us be allies instead.”

”You just tried to kill us.”

”No, I did not. I tried to make you stay.”

”So what was all of this then? Just messing around for fun?” Mike gestured with his free hand. The other was still wrapped around the sword, ”You have some explaining to do. Besides, if you could speak all along why didn’t you?”

”I speak when I must.”

”That was a very vague answer.” Mike glanced behind him, where Lucas was still trying to clean Eleven’s wounds. The wrath rekindled. He turned back to the dragon and said venomously, ”And you hurt someone who is very dear to me, I will not forgive you for that.”

”She was about to hurt me.” The dragon’s voice was colder now.

”No, she was literally the only one of us who could not hurt you, she was innocent! She didn’t have any powers! She lost them a long time ago!”

”That is not true.”

Mike put the tip of the sword back against the neck, on that soft spot where it could easily penetrate. His hands craved to push it through, but instead he snapped it away and cussed. Killing a beast was one thing, but to kill someone he had just spoken to, someone with actual thoughts inside their head… Now he just wanted to leave. He wanted get his friends, bring Eleven to a hospital, say goodbye to Charlie and go back home through the gate which was waiting for them in the city below. He was so over this adventure. He didn’t even want to listen, didn’t even want to think about powers and not-powers anymore. He had just turned around to just walk away when the dragon said:

”My offer — will you be my companion?”

”Why would I ever be you companion? I’d rather never see you again.” 

”Don’t you want hold back the dark creatures from the other dimension?”

”Yes, but why me? Why not Will? He’s the one who’s in charge here.” Mike gestured lamely with his hand towards Will. He let the hand fall to his side, his head hung low.

He just wanted to cry without really knowing why. He just wanted to lay down and cry, hit something, maybe kill something, but it was now apparent that his heart was too frail to do such a thing. He didn’t even kill the dragon like he was fated to kill. His sword was still clean and unused, a mere decoration. What was Mike’s purpose in all of this? In this world? In any world?

”He is a wizard, not a knight,” the dragon said. ”You have much potential as a knight. Having me by your side could make you —”

”Now, if you’re not going to fight me, then at least let me take care of my friend. I need to think. This is so messed up.”

Mike stomped away, not even unsettled by the fact that he had his back turnt towards the enemy. The dragon didn’t seize the opportunity to attack. It just shrugged, unfurled its wings and lifted into the sky. The wing flaps created strong winds that made all hair and loose fabrics flutter. Mike watched it disappear without any feeling of regret. He didn’t even care that he had just rejected an offer to be a knight with a dragon companion, like he used to dream about as a child, but he was no longer a child and the reality of it all wasn’t what he had thought it to be. He needed to think, it was true. He was overwhelmed and underwhelmed, disappointed and relieved, feeling tired and yet more awake than ever. No good decisions could come out of this.

”El?” he said, kneeling down by her side, putting the sword away.

Her eyes were open just a little, her eyelids heavy and her pupils unfocused. The wound on her forehead had been cleaned with whatever Lucas and Charlie had at hand. Her lower lip was swollen and bruised. He damned himself for letting her end up like this — again. What did she ever do to deserve all of this?

”Mike?” she mumbled, her voice merely a faint breath.

”Rest, El,” Lucas told her, ”Don’t talk.”

She fell silent again, her eyes shut closed.

Mike stood up again. He glanced behind him towards the gate. He knew that it was there because Will had said so, but it only looked like an open square from this spot. The sky above didn’t have any physical door to leave through, but he could imagine that that the clouds would swallow them and take them back to their world when it was time to depart.

”Let’s go home,” he said.

***

The square appeared much bigger when standing by it in comparison to when viewed from the mountains. On the contrary, the mountains looked much smaller when peering up than how it felt to stand at the summit. It was a lot nicer to look at than to climb, too. From this safe spot Mike could even appreciate its majestic beauty.

There were merchants preparing the days market all around them. They stayed near the edge of the square, close to the buildings surrounding it. Eleven had been placed to rest on a bench. Mike leaned against the wall and watched the men, women, children all helped one another out with setting their tables up and placed their products on top like a buffet for the costumers to inspect. It was still early morning but it felt like the day had already lasted for fifty hours or so.

The morning air was still nippy but when walking through the intricate city, surrounded by tall buildings which shrouded from the wind, and they found a sunny spot, they got a taste of the heat that was about to come. The day was about to become as hot and humid as the previous day, but they were not going to stay long enough to experience it anew.

Dustin had carried Eleven all the way down. He never even complained about the weight, his arms could surely have carried the whole bunch if he had wanted to. Her head fell back limply and her arms dangled as he walked. Mike had to tell himself repeatedly that she wasn’t dead, that she had in fact spoken to him and Charlie and Will were confident that she would heal eventually.

”She should probably stay here,” Will had said, ”The elves are incredible healers. Better than the doctors in America for sure. It doesn’t feel right to leave her behind, but I think it’s the best thing we can do for her. I think she likes it better here than in a sterile hospital anyway.”

”I’ll keep her safe,” Charlie promised.

”I’ll kill you if you don’t,” Max warned him, not even joking.

Mike couldn’t shrug the thought out of his mind that the dragon had implied that she still had powers, that she was about to hurt her. He wondered if anybody else had heard it. Perhaps she did. In that case she’d survive anything, she’d be the one to keep everyone else safe. But when she draped over Dustin’s arms like a sack of lifeless grains and she mumbled incoherent nonsense, it was soothing to know that Charlie would take care of her while she was still in this state.

”Where’s Holly?” Nancy asked, looking around her.

There were plenty of kids running around, playing fetch, teasing each other, chatting in various different languages, but none of them wore clothes made out of leaves like the ones Holly wore. The kids seemed particularly fond of Charlie and the fact that they had to share his attention with ’that girl on the bench’ appeared to bothered them deeply. One boy offered his sweater to him, suggesting that it could be used as a pillow for the girl. Charlie thanked him, ruffled his hair and made a ball out of the knitted shirt. It was carefully placed under Eleven’s head. After that every kid wanted to offer their clothes to him, shirts, shoes, socks, belts — one boy even offered to take his pants off, but then Charlie begged him not to.

”She’s not amongst them,” Max noted.

”Oh, I sure hope she’s safe,” Will wailed, whistling innocently with his hands clasped behind his back, ”It’d be very unfortunate if a wolf ate her, wouldn’t it? How very, very sad — ”

”I didn’t get eaten! I didn’t! I’m okay!” Holly cheered, ”See?”

And there she was, bouncing up and down with her little spear in her hand and her hat on top of her shaggy hair. Nancy pulled her into a hug. Holly was perfectly unharmed. Her cheeks were flushed red and she had that healthy radiance of someone who had spent a lot of time in nature. She had a pink lollipop in her hand and a whole collection of other colors hanging from her belt.

”Adult person!” another little warrior said, popping up in the empty air with her spear pointed at Nancy, ”Who are you?”

”I’m Nancy Wheeler,” she said, wincing back a little.

”Captain, this is my sister! She’s very kind. And that’s my brother!” Holly pointed towards Mike, ”He’s a bit stupid but he won’t hurt anyone — unless it’s very, very necessary.”

”You are the one who pushed the bully who insulted Will the Wise?” the captain asked, an eyebrow raised smugly.

Her hair was also cut short in the same sloppy way as Holly’s, looking like someone had just grabbed a pair of scissors and chopped it off in one go. Although the captain was no more that twelve years old, she was a bit intimidating. She had lowered her spear but she inspected Mike with the suspicion of someone who was anticipating something bad and had the intention to attack if it did. She didn’t even seem like the type that was scared off by Mike’s sword, which was a lot bigger than her little spear.

”That’s me,” Mike said, unsure if this was something to be proud of or not. Lucas chortled. That time when Mike pushed Troy was one of the most iconic moments in their childhood. They lived off that moment for a long time. Dustin had even suggested making a formal diploma and frame it on the wall to always remind them of that honorable moment.

”Grownups say pushing people is wrong,” the captain started, then she cracked up in a mischievous grin, ”And therefor it was very cool of you to do it. You have our approval. Please don’t grow older though because you’re about to become an adult yourself.” This was stated like an order.

”I doubt it,” Mike chuckled.

”You know, without adults there would be no kids,” Steve inferred.

He had watched the kids mob Charlie with great amusement, even wistfulness. His students were waiting for him at home. He seemed to miss them now that he saw the kids, heard their excitement. He turned his eyes to Holly and the captain, who both looked startled by this statement. Steve laughed warmly at their reaction and told them that they’d understand eventually.

They could easily have spent more time in the city. There was so much so see, so much to explore, but they had made this journey for a reason — it was time to leave. Mike looked around him with a sense of nostalgia. The craziness, the dangers and the tedious boredom had come to feel like home, in the same way that Hawkins felt like home although Mike only didn’t exactly love it at all times. Strangely, he sensed that he would miss it despite all.

”Alright then.” Will clapped his hands together. ”Shall we go?”

They said goodbye to Eleven and Charlie, promised her that they’d be reunited soon, although they were not sure if Eleven could hear them. Will gave Charlie a tight hug, said something about this not being an actual goodbye, that he was going to fix everything. Charlie was optimistic as ever, consoled Will with encouraging words, said that he’d be okay and that he would take care of not just Eleven but everything while he was gone.

Holly cried when she hugged the captain. Then, like popcorns in a pot, one after the other the other members of their troop popped up around them. They wept, hugged and gave Holly so many souvenirs that Steve had to help her carry them.

”You’ll come back, won’t you?” one of the boys cried.

Holly glanced up at Mike and Nancy, and then at Will, but neither of them could assure her anything, in fact neither of them even noticed that she was looking at them. She turned back with an uncertain sorrow in her eyes, her lowered lip trembling.

”I don’t know. I hope so,” she said.

It wasn’t easy for anyone to leave. Mike had to take deep breaths when leaving Eleven behind. Charlie was there with her, the elves would take care of her, he told himself, but it felt wrong to leave someone else to do it. It was his responsibility to keep his loved ones safe. This was not just something that had dawned on him the moment the was supposed to save them from the dragon — it was something that had always been there inside of him.

Will led them to the middle of the square, where there was a fountain. The water splashed invariably, poured from a marble pipe which was a part of a mermaid sculpture. The kids followed them curiously, whispering to one another and pointing. They had never traveled to a different dimension, Mike figured, this was as weird for them as it was for anyone in the mundane world. It was crazy to think that he was one of the few people in the whole world who had been involved with not just one — but three — dimensions.

”So how do we do it?” Max inquired.

”We dive.” Will stepped over the edge of the fountain, his shoes still on and everything. The water soaked his pants to his knees. ”You’ve done it before, haven’t you?”

”Let’s not get stuck in the Void this time,” Dustin muttered, peering into the crystal clear water with incongruous distaste. It wasn’t murky like the Lover’s Lake. It was actually inviting, if anything, so clear and shimmering that you could probably drink it if you wanted to, but Mike related to his reluctance. The Void was almost the worst part, now that he looked back at the journey in retrospect.

”We won’t,” Will assured, ”Just follow me.”

They stepped into the water. Dustin fastened Mike’s sword in his belt so keep it secure. The fountain wasn’t deep and there was a marble floor beneath their feet. Will hunched down, took a deep breath. Mike braced himself, expecting Will to hit his head against the marble at the bottom, but when he plunged forward, head first, his body just sleekly cut through the water and disappeared. Mike did the same thing before he even had the chance to get anxious about it, and indeed — his body moved through water which was much deeper than the fountain.

He swam deeper, deeper, deeper, just like he had done in the freezing lake. Now he was surrounded by light instead of the dark material, the ivory shade of marble and daylight. And just like last time, the water eventually became less dense and started feeling ever more like nothingness, but this time he fell right through the Void and the next thing he knew was the feeling of sticks, stones and moss under his body, and oxygen rich air in his lungs.


	22. Chapter 22

They were now in a forest. From this spot it was impossible to see the end of it, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as the wilderness they had trudged through in the Downside Up. Tall trees towered above, but the trees were just ordinary ones. There were no bizarre birds, no fairies, nothing like that. The branches looked like a meticulous pattern above, a clouded sky alluded behind the leaves. In its simplicity, it was a lovely view. The scent was fresh and organic. Mike couldn’t smell any of those bizarre flowers anymore.

He lay on his back, sprawled out flat. He had an uncomfortable rock under his shoulder, but he didn’t bother moving. The nausea lingered still, the feeling of gravity holding his body down against the ground was still strange. It had only lasted for a matter of seconds this time, but it was the sort of feeling which you couldn’t forget. It stood out like a sore thumb in a lifetime with gravity.

Right next to him Holly struggled to sit up. She had stopped crying and now she looked around her with interested eyes, seeming eager to explore this new environment. It was once more apparent how easily kids her age could let things go.

”You okay, Holly?” Mike asked, glancing over at her.

She actually seemed startled the fact that he knew where to look to find her. She adjusted her hat on top of her head, flatted her uniform out. The leaves allowed her to blend in with the background although she wasn’t invisible now. Her rosy cheeks and skin appeared to be floating if you didn’t look closely. She nodded to his question.

”Where are we?” she wondered.

”North Carolina, I hope,” Mike said. He pushed himself up, turned to Will, ”Are we?”

”Yes. I’ve passed through the gate many times from here to the other side, and then back again. I need to do something about those gates though, this is not the ideal way to enter a new dimension, there has to be a smoother way,” Will said. He has moss stuck in his hair, an unpleased look on his face. He was the first to stand up again. ”Everyone alright?” he asked.

They were. They made it. They crawled closer to one another, hugged, let out cheers of relief and dusted the organic rubbish off their clothes. One after the other they stood up, took some tentative steps. The solidness of having something beauty their feet felt unfamiliar, but the fact that the ground was soft like a cushion, covered in fluffy moss, was even more unfamiliar. Mike bounced a little up and down. Holly copied him, laughing. The way the material yielded under their weights was mesmerizing. The mountain’s roughness was a mere memory now, so far away already.

Actually, everything seemed far away now. There was not a physical trace of a gate, a door, an opening, anything at all. It was just an ordinary forest to the eye, but somewhere in the midair around them, something had allowed them to enter. They had fallen from a height and dropped down on the ground, just like Mike had dropped down at the haystack a couple of days prior. And somewhere there had to be a way to leave as well. Mike thought he spotted a pond or a little stream behind the foliage, just a bit further away. He didn’t even ask Will if that was how he left this world to enter his own, he had already figured out the pattern himself — the exits were located underwater.

”How far is it to the university?” Max peered around her.

”Not too far. Say, a forty minute walk or so,” Will estimated, ”Well, that’s if you take the quickest route, but should probably opt for a more… private way.” He looked down at himself, held his arms out to inspect his current state. Mike had to admit he had looked better before.

They still wore the same clothes as they had worn while in the Downside Up. Holly could probably get away with it if she just told everyone that she was in a play or that it was a part of a game, but the rest of them would be conspicuous if they walked around in public in ripped, medieval clothing, covered in bruises and scratches — not to mention the dreary looks on their faces and the aged eyes which had clearly seen some stuff in their lifetime — but none of that really mattered, it was nothing in comparison to the fact that they had made it back. People in general never noticed anything anyway. Last time they fought a battle against both the Soviet Union and a monster and burned a mall to the ground, and yet nobody caught on to what was actually going on. It was safe to assume that nobody would care.

”You have to tell Isabella that you worked as a laundry elf the next time she complains about that you don’t help her with the chores,” Dustin chortled, punching Steve on the shoulder.

”Hell no!” he frowned, shaking his head, ”She’ll use it against me! ’Steveee, since you’re so good at taking care of the laundry, why don’t you blah blah’. No way. This is a secret that stays between us, alright? If any of you — wait, what was that?”

Something rattled in the foliage. By instinct, they winced back. What if something had followed them through the gate? Mike had learned that unexpected encounters and surprises was the only thing to expect when it involved Will’s dimension. Dustin still had the sword and he was too far away to hand it over. A whole sequence of disastrous scenarios flashed by in Mike’s head until the shrouding branch was pushed aside and — 

”Lewis?!”

”Will?!” Lewis, with his auburn hair and awkwardly long neck, stood in front of them with the most baffled expression on his face. He wore a city chic jacket and looked comically out of place and disoriented amid the trees, giving the impression that he had also ended up in the forest without knowing why and how. His eyes flickered from one person to the other. ”Mike?! All of you?!”

Lewis didn’t know what to say, Will didn’t know either, nobody did. They just stared at one another in equal amount of disbelief and confusion. Lewis stepped forward, let the branch fall back into its natural position behind him. Without a word he pulled Will into a hug.

”Where have you been?! I thought you were dead!” he exclaimed, ”Do you have any idea —?!”  
Will nodded and apologized in a frantic stream. Lewis wasn’t mad. Perhaps he would eventually get mad when the shock had settled, but for now he just held his hand to his forehead and opened his mouth repeatedly without ever uttering any sound. He still hadn’t done anything about his overgrown bangs, but now he had started to sweep it out of his face with his fingers instead of throwing his head from side to side. He did this about ten times, almost frantically as though this was his only comfort in the moment. Mike felt sorry for him but the whole situation was hilarious.

”It’s a lot, I know, I know. I’ll explain.” Will held his hand in the air in front of him as if to calm Lewis down. It didn’t work, but he didn’t get more upset either. He just scratched the back of his neck and blinked as if he expected the sight of Will and the rest to disappear again, but they were not a hallucination, they were actually there. Lewis own presence was also surreal. He looked like someone had done a poor editing job, just copy-pasted him into the view without even trying to make him blend in. This encounter was about as weird for them as it was for him.

”Who are you?” Holly asked him, unabashed. ”What are you doing out here?”

”I’d like to ask you the same thing! I, for one, was out here looking for my missing friend!” he replied, his voice shrill, ”What are you guys wearing?! What have you been doing?! You all look awful! Looks like a monster tried to eat you or something!”

The silence before Will assured him that they did not get attacked by a monster was a little bit too long. Lewis had started walking back the same way that he had come, hands held up in surrender. Mike couldn’t help but laugh at the whole situation, what else was there to do? Lewis muttered to himself as he walked away, trying his best to dodge the branches above without actually succeeding.

”Lewis, wait!” Will called, hurrying after him, ”Please! I’ll explain everything if you just promise to listen until the very end, alright?”

***

Mike scared himself badly when he stepped into the bathroom. It wasn’t just the strangeness of a modern sink, a toilet, a shower and all the tiny plastic bottles on the counter — it was the sight of himself in the mirror that made him skip. He knew what his friends looked like, but it hadn’t crossed his mind that he had also come to look like a mess. Perhaps it was a good decision to stay at the hotel for a night or two before returning to Hawkins. His mother would have a heart attack at the sight of her children, if she had not already had one because of their extended absence.

”You guys have to stay here, okay? You can’t go out like that, you’ll scare people. They’ll think you’re a cult or something,” Lewis had said and offered to get them everything they needed instead. He had the countenance of someone who was on the brink of freaking out, but somehow he had remained calm through everything, only nodding and saying ’okay’ to everything thrown at him.

”Don’t tell anyone about this. Not even Rachel. Perhaps it’s mean to exclude her like this, but she wouldn’t want to be involved with these things,” Will said sternly.

”Won’t say a word,” Lewis swore, a hand in the air.

He had then gone back to his dorm, collected whatever grooming products he could find, some clothes and returned with two giant IKEA bags full of things. He had returned to them, at the cusp of the forest, and forced them to at least change into some other clothes before heading to the hotel. Now, the thing with Lewis’ clothes was that they were pretty conscious too, and all of his pieces were way too long on everyone except for on Mike.

”It looks like you’re wearing a dress,” Holly noted, eyeing Steve up and down, poking at him gently with the spear. She had refused to put it away, it almost seemed to have grown to be a part of her hand at this point.

Mike didn’t feel the same attachment to the sword anymore. If anything, he wanted to get rid of it, just forget it ever existed. Now it laid on the bed in the room, being nothing but a reminder of what he had seen. It was like two world collided. Actually, that was exactly what it was. Coming back to the same hotel felt like completing the circle. The elevator music in the lobby, the clerk which immediately recognized them when they came in (”Oh, you found him at last!”), the whirring of the air-condition… the only thing that had changed was the ambience. The dejected frustration of not knowing where Will was, the uncertainty of not even knowing if he was alive or not, had now left a profound emptiness behind it instead. What now?

Water streamed out of the shower handle. It was hot already and it filled the bathroom with steam and condense. A towel laid on a shelf waiting for him. He had turned the shower on several minutes ago, but he couldn’t force himself away from the mirror. The man looking back at him couldn’t possibly be himself.

He looked like a savage, but not the kind of cool anarchist rebels in dystopian novels, but a derelict one. His hand still had traces of soot on it from when he touched the wall in the cave, and it had transferred to his forehead and his cheek. Nancy had tried to wipe it away before going to the hotel, but she only smeared it out even more.

Mike made himself chuckle when he realized that he looked like a hermit who had lived alone in the bushes for thirty years or so. The skin on his nose had a red hue and the rest of his face had tanned in the sun. His eyes appeared to sit deeper than usual, with dark shadows where the socket met the brow bone, the inner corners met the nose and in a semicircle beneath. He looked older, in desperate need of a meal and a nap, and bland like a man who had already seen everything — and yet, despite all of these things, Mike smiled a little at the sight.

He looked like farmers on the hill. He thought of the man whom he had helped create the haystacks, threw a glance towards the pile of clothes on the toilet lid. He had stolen that man’s shirt, he forgot to give it back. Now the fabric carried the traces of the man’s story and Mike’s, the farmer’s and the failed paladin’s, fused together. Nobody else could tell of course, but it was oddly intimate to think of it like that, and also symbolic. When Mike had first entered the dimension and met the man, he had thought of them as strange and foreign, now he grown to be just like them. His face looked their theirs, shaped by nature and circumstances, his mind had stopped pondering artificial things and what-ifs. More than ever before, Mike had spent those days focusing on the present.

”Mike?” Will knocked on the bathroom door, ”Mike?”

”Yeah?” He snapped out of his thoughts, opened the door on ajar.

The steam beamed out of the opening and the chilly, dry air which filled the rest of the hotel room flooded into the bathroom in return. Will had already washed up hastily. After that he had called his mom using the telephone booth in the courtyard. They spoke until Will ran out of coins to put into the machine. He looked emotionally drained and relieved at once now. Whatever he and mrs Byers had talked about, it had brought the softness back into his face. He looked more like himself now. Mike had missed it, this was the Will Byers that he had known his whole life.

”When you’re done in there, do you want to go grab something to eat?” Will asked.

”Sure. Just a moment.”

”No stress, take your time. I think Max and Dustin are both asleep anyway and everyone agreed that they wanted to rest for a bit before heading out again.”

”I wouldn’t mind going out to eat just the two of us,” Mike said, titling his head to the side. Will cracked up, coyly but undeniably excited. Mike leaned forward to kiss him. When he leaned back he saw that he had left a soot mark where his cheek had touched Will’s. He cupped Will’s face and tried to rub it off with his thumb while he said, ”I mean, no offense to the others, but I’ve literally spent every single day with them for the past couple of weeks. Twenty-four-seven. Like an ameba.”   
”I get it, don’t worry,” Will laughed, ”After that night I just wanted to be with you and make up for all the time lost, but I barely even had the opportunity to say a word to you before someone bursted into the room, you know?”

”I know, I know. Now let me just wash up here real quick, let’s not talk right here like this.”

***

Once more they found themselves seated at opposite sides of a table. They were at the pub where they had eaten before, the one with the rustic theme. Now Mike frowned at it. The massive tables, the wooden interior, everything looked like a ridiculous attempt at recreating Tinkerbell’s. It felt empty without the loud sailors singing and the creatures clonking their goblets together. Mike figured that the main difference was how welcoming Tinkerbell’s had been, although overwhelming and chaotic. Anyone could slide in through the entrance and immediately become a part of the commotion. Here the guests stuck to themselves, as though there was a wall between the tables that kept them apart. The TV showed a football game which some of the guest glanced up at every now and then, but nobody cared much about.

”Lewis needs some time, but I know he’ll be onboard with it soon enough,” Will said. He sipped some coca cola, put the glass down on the table, ”He loves conspiracy theories. Every time he gets a little tipsy he starts rambling about the that the government is fake, just entirely fictional, or that Earth doesn’t exist, or that HIV is actually a manmade disease that was created by homophobes to kill all the homosexuals, things like that, you know? It won’t take much for him to accept interdimensional traveling as a real thing.”

They didn’t have to worry about people listening. Nobody paid attention to them and they sat in the corner with no neighbors at the tables nearby. It was still quite early in the evening and it was Friday. Most people had not yet gone out.

”I almost told him before.” Mike remembered how close it was, he had the words on the tip of his tongue. He sensed that Lewis had an available mind, perhaps it was the way he choose to not believe that Will was in an abuse relationship simply because he felt it in his guts that it couldn’t be true, that there had to be a different explanation despite all the proof pointing at the same thing.

”So you did meet him?” Will asked, a little cheeky.

”Yeah. He was the only one except for Rachel who could actually give us any clues about you.”

”So you met Rachel too?”

”Will, I hope you realize that we did everything we could to find you,” Mike said, not breaking the eye contact, ”Literally everything. We went full on Sherlock Holmes, if you only knew — ” he stopped himself, ”Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? Never mind.”

The waiter arrived with their food. It was the perfect interruption that stopped the tension from building up before it had even started. They had both ordered hamburgers and fries. Will commented on how good it was and after that it felt like the conversation had just started over again in a lighter tone.

”Lewis told me you smoked pot once,” Mike started, grinning.

”Don’t remind me, I’ve worked hard on forgetting that it ever happened!”

”So that means no coffeeshops in the Netherlands then? I think it could be an efficient way to make the art more interesting.” Mike presented the idea with a formal gesture with his hand, his head held high like an aristocratic counsellor. He broke out of character with a laugh, directed at Will’s outraged face, ”No? Not a good idea?”

”No, because I spend the entire visit in a bathroom stall!” Will complained, ”I said that I wanted to go to cafes, not coffeeshops.”

”Do they still serve coffee at regular cafes that are not coffeeshops?” Mike asked, mouth full of food. He had a crease between his brows as though this was a valid reason to get concerned. Mike had never thought about it before. These type of useless questions made him feel more like Mike Wheeler the college students again, and though that wasn’t necessary a good thing, it made him think that perhaps everything would go back to normal again — just like last time — and so the cycle would continue. 

”Why wouldn’t they?” Will frowned.  
”Europeans are strange, Will.” Mike shook his head, swallowed the food. He put a finger in the air, ”But a good thing is that they all seem a bit gay so nobody will be able to tell that we’re any different. If they ask we’ll just pretend that we’re English.”

”Could you fake an English accent?” Will raised a skeptical eyebrow.

”Of course! It’s as good as my French!”

Mike and Will chatted the evening away. The waiter gave them an almost horrified look when they laughed too loudly, but the other guests only chuckled along, glanced over their shoulders to catch a glimpse of what was so funny. In a way this dinner was something new as it was an actual date, but it didn’t feel new. It felt like usual — informal, friendly, stupid and easy. They never fell silence because there was always something more to say. The only thing that was actually different was that when Mike let his eyes rest on Will, his heart was allowed to claim him, he didn’t hold it back.

Mike could see the future now. It was just a vague image, but he liked what he saw. They’d be okay. They’d be together, travel, grow older. Mike would welcome the passage of time, if only fate could promise him that Will and his friends would still be with him. He hoped that Eleven was okay, wherever she was right now. When they walked back to the hotel, Mike glanced up at the sky and wondered if she could also see it, if she was actually somewhere nearby but in a different dimension.

”The elves will take care of her. They like Charlie, they wouldn’t turn him away if he asked them to help her. And in addition to that she’s my sister,” Will said calmly.

They stopped in the park for a moment. There were some other people there, sitting on the benches, walking around with their headphones or some company. The street lights were lit up now. They didn’t give the same type of glow as the lanterns in the Downside Up, it was more sterile, too cold and consistent. Mike and Will intentionally avoided their light. They found a spot behind a maple that was private enough to kiss, but not private enough to do anything more than that. It was enough to begin with, but the untamed desire became too much to stifle at last.

”Come on, let’s go back to the hotel,” Will urged, grabbing his hand.

They almost ran back, laughing for no particular reason.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Sex
> 
> When I created the outline for this story, I didn't plan on including any sexy-sexy stuff at all. When I started writing it, I thought implying sexual content was enough and then when I started editing I realized that my story was so dry that it needed some spice. This chapter I literally just wrote and decided to squeeze in before the next chapter because I guess y'all came here for Byler, and since it's rated M I bet you thought you'd get some smut, so here - Have some! At last! Thank you for sticking around! I could have written it more explicitly but maaaan it's awkward enough already, but at least I tried x_x I'm sorry if I led you on with the M rating!
> 
> Enjoy! (or something??? skip it if you don't want to read it, there's literally no plot points in this chapter)
> 
> And once more I'd like to remind you that these characters are aged up. If you think of Noah and Finn while reading this I'll strangle you, alright? Don't do it.

The hotel corridor on their floor was deserted. Will struggled with the keycard. His hands were clumsy and impatient. Once they were allowed inside, Will pushed Mike up against the wall right away. Mike let him. Will’s hands were so adoring, but they moved unapologetically and steadily, giving the impression that he knew exactly what he wanted and he wasn't shy about it.

”You have lube this time?” Mike breathed, ”I still don’t.”

”I have.”

Will kissed the nape of his nape neck. Mike liked the thought of that Will had prepared, it meant that he had wanted it and intended to make it happen. To do it once was one thing, but to do it twice and actually prepare for it was something else. Mike hoped that he was prepared enough. This meal that he just ate was a safe distance away, still, and he hadn’t eaten anything in ages before that. It was such a stupid thing, but it needed to be taken into consideration, or else you had to be ready to deal with the consequences.

”You top,” Mike said. It wasn’t even a question. He pulled Will closer, welcomed him to push against him again. He accidentally bumped against the light switch behind him, making the ceiling lamp flicker for a second before he quickly shut it off again.

”Sure,” Will mumbled, ”I top.” 

He kissed Mike again and Mike put his arms over his shoulder. Will held his waist, altering between that of a tender embrace and that of someone who was demanding. Mike didn’t mind being the softer one although he was taller. His body liked to yield into someone’s touch, liked to be cared for and get claimed by someone else. He wouldn’t do it for anyone though. It sort of marked the difference between a causal hookup and heartfelt passion. Mike would never let someone who he didn’t feel have a connection with take control over him like that, he had a couple of times but it never felt right. For Will he’d do it anytime.

”Come here,” Will said at last, pulling Mike along, stumbling away from the wall.

They had left the lamp on the nightstand on when they went out to eat. When they left the room was still lit up by the evening sun beaming in through the window. Now it was dark out and the room was dimly lit. The bed was so properly made, as they often were at hotels, that the bedsheets had to be pulled at to even crease the slightest. The neatness looked nice when coming into the room, but it wasn’t comfortable nor inviting.

”Hold on, just a sec…” Mike mumbled, pulling the duvet free, pushing the bedspread away. His body was already screaming impatiently. As soon as the bed was stripped down, loosened up and the excessive fabrics were thrown aside, he fell back onto the mattress. Its softness swallowed him, let him sink into it. He reached out with his arms open. ”Will.”

Will crawled on top while taking his shirt off. As soon as the skin was revealed, Mike’s hands found their way to touch it. It was so satisfying, and yet it teased a craving that made him want more. His skin was hypersensitive, whatever callousness built up during the stay in the Downside Up was gone now. He felt everything, not just in the skin where Will touched him, but like a force rippling through his whole body, turning his consciousness into a hazy delirium and his hips move without him even realizing.

”Take it off…” Will begged, running his hand up Mike’s torso, under his shirt.

Mike just lifted his hands up, let Will do it for him. As soon as the fabric, a stupid sweater which Lewis had originally bought as ironically because of its crazy pattern, was out of the way Mike felt a hundred times sexier. While he was at i he undid the button of his pants and the zip, but let them stay on, low on his hips. He lifted his own arms above his head, sprawled out and grinning. He knew what he was doing. Will looked intoxicated, all flushes and dizzy, with his hair already messy and his hands fussy.

”Just do whatever you like,” Mike said.

”I want to make it good for you too.”

”Don’t worry, I like it.”

”What?”

”When you take control.”

”Oh.” Will swallowed, wet his lips. ”Well, in that case…”

Mike couldn’t even remember exactly how one thing led to the other, all he knew was that it felt good. The proximity, the kisses, the rhythmic pounding, moving back, moving forward, being one unit with another person, it was great. This was what sex was supposed to be. Free and loving. It did as much to his mind as it did to his body.

”Shh, they’ll hear you…!” Will hissed at one point. He glanced over his shoulder as though he expected someone to actually stand there at the other end of the room. Mike wasn’t even aware that he was making any sounds, even less aware that there were other guests at the hotel. Everything that wasn’t Will felt far away, and although it wasn’t, it didn’t matter. In that moment Mike didn’t even care if they heard him, but then Will leaned over him, with one arm on either side of his shoulder and his face so close that Mike couldn’t see anything but him when he looked up. In a sharper tone Will said, ”Quiet.”

After that Mike just lost it. He had no idea if it lasted for five minutes or five hours. It was probably seven minutes or so, but it felt like five hours. He gave Will the best head he had ever given. He didn’t even know he could do it like that, didn’t know he even liked to do it like that. Sure, he had given head before, to both guys and to girls, but it just an act of service, something he did to return the favor, something that he knew they’d like but he didn’t particularly enjoy doing. It didn’t have anything to do with Will tasting better than anybody else, or his dick being exceptionally nice to have in your mouth, it was just the fact that it was Will. Mike could have kept going forever if it wasn’t because Will eventually forced his head away by grabbing a fistful of his hair and tugging at his roughly, making Mike’s head snap backwards. It really hurt, it even made his eyes tear up a little against his will.

”Shit, I’m sorry!” Will squeaked directly after doing it, covering his mouth in horror. ”I didn’t mean to do it so roughly! Are you okay?” Will cupped his face and kissed him gently, on the forehead, on the nose, on his lips.

”It’s alright,” Mike assured him. He chuckled a little, wiped his eyes. ”I was the one who asked for it.”

”Sure, but still…” Will looked a bit uncertain for a moment. Perhaps he wasn’t used to the whole ’being in charge’-thing. It didn’t seem like it, but he was rock solid hard so it apparently did something that was good to him anyway.

”Don’t worry about it,” Mike said.

He then wrapped his hand around Will, eased them back into the mood again. It didn’t take long until they were back at it again as if they had never slowed down. It turned out that Mike was better suited to be in charge because Will was too nervous about it, but he didn’t change his mind about bottoming. It hurt a little bit at first, but with lots of lube and some toys to start with it was fine. Mike didn’t ask where Will got the toys from, but the vague memory of Dustin finding a box inside of the closed probably held the answer.

The thought of Will not only having sex, because all adults did so it wasn’t anything new, but being really into it as well was a major turn on. Mike had never thought of him like that, he didn’t seem like a very sexual person. Will didn’t come across like a guy who would enjoy teasing someone with a vibrator until they went insane. But then again, did Mike come across like someone who enjoyed the feeling of getting pounded roughly into a mattress while clawing at someone’s back when they first met him? Probably not, or so he hoped at least.

Although it was scandalous and not very sweet per se, it was a secret that Mike only let Will know about which made it rather intimate. He let his guard down willingly. When did he ever do that? For a moment afterwards, once the bliss had settled into cosy contentless, Mike felt ashamed of himself. It took a minute or two before he realized that he wasn’t ashamed, he was just scared. What would come out of this? He rarely made himself vulnerable to others, he realized, so now he didn’t know what to expect. But once the uncertainty started stirring inside he reminded himself that whatever would come out of it, it’d be okay.

Will wouldn’t hurt him despite that he could and Mike wasn’t going to hurt Will either. That was something he had promised himself, and in order to keep that promise he needed to be weak sometimes, although it scared him.


	24. Chapter 24

Mike stroke the soft hair, held Will’s head against his chest. Will’s arm rested around his waist. It was warm and cosy. The duvet was pulled over both of them, creating a subtile barrier between themselves and everything else in the world. Skin again skin and skin against cotton. Their breathing had slowed down, the rush had settled into a hazy stillness. Their clothes were dropped on the floor, shorts and tees and not much else. Mike’s denim jacket laid neglected over the back of the armchair. His class literature was put on the low table by the couch, a notebook still left open since he last touched it this morning. The sword and the clothes were hidden under the bed, wrapped in an old cloth. He hadn’t even looked at them since putting them there.

It was June already and the night was lukewarm and pretty, even in Hawkins. Throughout the weeks that they had settled back into old routines and the fraudulent explanation they gave everyone when they first came returned had now become a trustworthy reflex, they came so naturally that for a moment they could even make themselves believe that they were true — an yet the experience still pervaded everything they did in one way or another, never letting them forget they had seen. The memories popped up at random times, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes just a quick thought that dissolved before they had even registered it.

Mike had forgotten what it felt like to have seen something that most people hadn’t, to be something that most people weren’t. It was bizarre to think that the majority had no clue of what was now a prominent part of himself, inseparable from his sense of self and the way he perceived the world around him. He couldn’t fathom what it must be like for those who didn’t have a clue, those who still believed that their own world was the only reality there was. Some days it made him feel isolated, a bit lonely at worst, but then the realization struck him that he’d be absolutely miserable if he didn’t know that there was something more to the world than the mundane. And now that he had seen the opposite of it, he could actually appreciate the languid pace of the town. He liked to take walks in the neighborhood, knowing perfectly well where he was going and what he could expect to see.

Will had stayed with him for the most part, in fact all of them had. Perhaps it was the yearning for home that kept them in Hawkins for longer than they had originally planned, perhaps it was the reluctance to end the chapter, to shatter the group and spread out across the country anew. Nobody really addressed it, it just happened.

”I should go back to school,” Max had said, sighing. She had said that countless of times since that afternoon when they landed in the North Carolinian woods. Mike stopped listening after the first five times. Eleven and Lucas offered words of encouragement the best they could, but after a while their engagement had waned to mere nods and hums.

Max had said in the car on the way to Hawkins while desolately looking out the window like if she was heading towards a tragic fate, she had brought it up every time Mike sat down to study, she had complimented Eleven’s character when she had called the council to discuss how to proceed, she had asked Dustin for advice regarding how to get good grades and how to memorize information and how to be efficient and this and that and this again. Dustin blandly told her about his own methods, until he finally realized that she only asked for the sake of having asked, not to actually hear his answer.

”I need that degree!” she declared, ”It’d be stupid of me to not finish it. It’ll look so bad if I drop out now that I’ve already changed my major once, anyone who reads it is going to think that I’m a person who doesn’t follow through the things that I start. And I need some sort of degree, or god knows what will happen with me. I’m not discipled enough to drop out and still make it. I’m not like those Harvard people who drop out to start up companies, and whatnot, and become freaking billionaires. I should go.”

”You don’t believe a word of what you just said, Max, do you?” Dustin had asked her, peering over the upper edge of his sunglasses, a skeptical eyebrow raised just above the other. She was too baffled by this question to even answer. Then Dustin chuckled, leaned back against the sunbed and said, ”See? That’s what I thought. There’s cool beer in the fridge. Go get yourself one and come back here. I think we deserve a fucking break after everything we’ve been through.”

She did. After that she didn’t bring it up anymore.

The future was still uncertain, but Mike enjoyed studying more than ever for the simple reason that it allowed him to understand things and everything made sense in one way or another. Trying to catch up was the biggest stress, but the teachers were surprisingly understanding. It seemed like they understood that they had really been through some things and definitely didn’t skip school to do nothing. They were allowed to study from home as their case was considered ’an exceptional case’ (according to Dustin’s teachers), and ’a personal misfortune’ (according to Mike’s).

The only ones who left Hawkins were Will and Eleven, who had to go back to Maine. Will had had a pallid shade in his face before going. At first Mike thought he was actually sick, that he had a fever or something, but then he understood why. Before Will closed the door to the car, in an almost transparent tone of his voice, he said:

”Do you think they’ll be mad at me?”

Mike assured him that they would understand, even if it’d take a while to instill everything. Truthfully, Mike had still not instilled everything either and sometimes it bothered him when the questions were afire inside of him and he couldn’t ask about it, but he understood that Will had reasons and that was all he really needed to know. Will would talk when he felt ready to, he figured, and if anybody knew that better than anyone it was mrs Byers and Jonathan. And Will was lucky to have such a family, consisting of people who loved him unconditionally.

”Mom and dad love you too, Mike! Don’t be so sullen, you know that they do!” Nancy insisted when Mike had expressed his thoughts, just after seeing Will and the car roll away up the street.

”Then why can’t they show it like mrs Byers does?” Mike muttered.

”Perhaps it’s because you don’t let them?”

”What?”

”Don’t you see how you’re the one who pushes them away all the time?” Nancy pushed him gently at the shoulder. He just stared at her, horrified. She was turning against him too, he thought. But Nancy gave him a complaisant look, that of an older sister, disarming and wise, and she said, ”Dad tried to bond with you when you were younger, but you always refused to. And mom tries her best, but you hide in that basement all day, so it’s not easy for her to connect.”

They were having breakfast, standing in the kitchen. Mike leaned against the island in the middle while Nancy leaned against the counter. There were dense, grey clouds covering the sky. Mike and Will had fallen asleep to the sound of pouring rain the previous night. It was still early. Karen and Holly were still asleep. Ted only came home every now and then, most of the time he was away, saying that he ’needed some space’ but not anything else. Whether he was cheating, working, drinking in a bar or trying to find inner peace, nobody knew.

Karen didn’t get up to prepare the breakfast for everyone anymore, didn’t do the dishes, didn’t water the plants on the windowsills. Mike dreaded the rapidly approaching reality that Nancy was going back to Indianapolis, fearing that the whole household would fall apart that same moment, and he partially blamed his father for this. The vanishing of his daughter had affected him somehow, because Ted Wheeler rarely ever left his armchair before, but just like always he dodged all responsibilities.

”They never tried to bond with me,” Mike said bluntly. He felt chilled to the bone, venomous, ”Dad just wanted a son to bring to the games for the sake of being able to show it off to his friends that he had a son to bring to the games. He could just as well had asked any random boy if he wanted to come along, he wouldn’t care if it was actually me or not.”

”But he didn’t.” Nancy remained sedate, almost provocatively so, but Mike didn’t want to get mad at her, especially not since she was about to leave and he knew that he’d miss her and her big-sister-ness, annoying or not.

”Do you really think it’s okay what he’s going?” Mike asked, ”Leaving mom like this?”

”Of course it’s not.”

”Then why are you defending him?”

”Because it’s not fair to say that everything a person does it bad just because they do some things that are bad. I don’t do everything right either, and neither do you. Why can’t you see that dad has tried to be good as well?”

”Because it’s literally not even true! If dad actually wanted to bond with me, why did he always neglect who I was? And everything I cared about? Why didn’t he ask me what I wanted to do? He knew that I didn’t like football, so why didn’t he suggest anything else? Literally anything at all?” Mike paused, but answered the question before Nancy could do it, in a long ramble without any breaks, ”It’s because he only cares about himself! He’s not willing to do anything for anybody else but himself. It was never an option for him to consider watching a sci-fi movie with me instead of watching a game, because he’d never, ever, in a hundred years, consider the idea that he could sacrifice two fucking hours to watch something that wasn’t his own preference!”

Mike had told himself that he didn’t care, and yet he was crying now. He wiped them away, abashed that they even existed. He had told everyone that he didn't care. Sometimes he believed it. Sometimes he pretended that he did. Nancy titled her head to the side, woefully, maybe understanding. Mike cussed at himself. He was being pitied again.

”I don’t pity you Mike,” Nancy said. Mike was genuinely terrified, the timing was so scary. Did she actually read his mind? She laughed at his expression. ”I daresay I know you pretty well. I know that it’s not enough, that you wish more people knew you, but I think I know you. I know that you don’t want to get pitied, that you don’t want people to feel sorry for you. It makes you feel inferior, doesn’t it? But there's a difference between being cared about and being pitied. I care about you. And I know that you care about other people a lot more than you think, and that’s a beautiful thing, not a burden.”

”It is a burden when I care about people but can’t help them.”

”So you do realize how difficult it is for those of us who care about you when you refuse to let us help you?” Nancy sipped some coffee. It was probably lukewarm and gross at this point. They had dwelled in the kitchen for ages. ”I don't blame you, don’t get me wrong, but you’re not always easy to deal with.”

”So what do you mean I should do then?” Mike held his arms out from his body, palms open. Hurl the truth at me then, he thought, and now he really believed that he’d be able to accept it because he was disarmed and his shell had already been cracked open. He felt stupid and empty, as though his own self had abandoned him, leaving nothing but an open pit behind for Nancy to throw her ideas in.

”Talk. I think you have to tell mom and dad who you are — and I don’t mean just that you like boys and everything with Will — but like… I don’t know,” Nancy shrugged.

”What if they don’t like who I am then?”

”I think they will like you, no matter what. If you ask me, I think the reason they may seem distant towards you is because they’re afraid. I think —”

”You mean that they’re afraid of me?” Mike frowned, now chuckling. His cheeks felt stiff as the tears had started to dry and salt had been left as traces behind.

”No, not of you,” Nancy said, rolling her eyes, ”but of what they don’t know. Both mom and dad are afraid of foreign things, you know, stuff they don’t understand. We’ve talked about this before, you know what I mean. So if you think about it, it makes sense that they’re a bit afraid of how little they actually know about you. You’re good at hiding stuff, but you’re not very good at hiding the fact that you’re hiding stuff. They know that they don’t know you. It makes them nervous, and just like with black people, and Mexicans, and gay people, and everything else, they choose to keep their distance. I think it totally makes sense!”

”But I’m their freaking son! I’m not some suspect guy with four eyes and sparkly dresses! I’m their son! I’ve lived my whole life with them!” Mike exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his hands. This was the first time in a while that his body didn’t feel paralyzed or bound. It felt good to gesture his frustration out. ”Why am I so scary?!”

”Look, I don’t know, and at the end of the day it’s your life and your relationship with them. But I think they want to get to know you and I think you want them to get to know you as well — and I’m sure that you actually want to get to know them too, because the truth is that you don’t. I have no manual. Do whatever you want.”

Nancy flicked with her hand in the air, shrugged her head. Then she pushed herself away from the counter to pour the rest of her coffee into the sink. This conversation was over. She tousled Mike’s hair own the way out of the kitchen. Mike could sense that she ended it here because she wanted him to consider everything she had said, and thinking was best done alone when there was nobody to get mad at and you had to figure out the different perspectives on your own instead. She was clever, Nancy. Mike felt as though he had just fallen into her trap, but he couldn’t help grinning at it.

He had since tried to talk. A little bit, anyway. But since his father was rarely at home and his mother slept most of the time, or moved around the house like a ghastly phantom version of her old self, it was hard to find the right timing. It was still not as it used to be, but over the course of the weeks that he had now lived at home, he had started to see subtile changes, slight improvements. One day, he promised himself, he’d talk, he’d do it as soon as Karen started seeing him again. Now when she looked his way, her eyes were hollow and bland, as though he was merely a piece of furniture or thin air.

Karen didn’t say much. If she said anything, it was usually something trivial like ’we’re out of coffee’ or ’oh, it’s raining’. Just like her eyes, her words were wan. It was as if the first couple of days when Mike, Nancy and Holly came home drained her entirely. So many emotions flooded out of her all at once, she was the happiest Mike had ever seen her, but he had never seen her cry so much either, but once they had talked and it was apparent that her nightmare had finally come to an end, she became empty instead. Having her three darlings gone missing for more than three weeks total must have elicited so many feelings out of her that she was now too exhausted to even smile when Holly gave her drawing and some homemade beaded bracelets.

For the time being Mike tried to care of the household, make sure Holly was okay and rest himself. There wasn’t much more he could do, he realized. The house was awfully empty at night when all of his friends had gone home and Will and Eleven were still in Maine, but the loneliness forced him to face himself and in hindsight he realized that it was needed. He still wanted them both to come back to Hawkins though. Luckily, they weren’t away for long.

Jonathan found Will’s belongings back in his room the same morning that he was going to come home. At first Jonathan had assumed that it was magic, that the room itself knew that Will was going to spend the night there and so the duvet just popped up again out of nowhere, but that was not the case. Will found a note inside his pillowcase. It was from the children’s troop. They apologized for stealing his things. Why, they never explained. How, they probably didn’t realize that Will was dying to know. It remained unaddressed in the note, which on the contrary was filled with doodles and misspellings and several different handwritings. It seemed like everyone had wanted to participate in the writing.

”It was probably just for fun, like a prank or something,” Will reasoned, eyes scanning the note anew after clues. ”There probably wasn’t a reason for it. They’re just kids, they don’t think about consequences like that. The timing was just very unfortunate.”

”They’re bastards if you ask me!” Jonathan had grumbled, ”Me and mom couldn’t feel safe at home after that. It was extremely unsettling that someone had broken into our house without us knowing who it was and why.”

The relief of being okay, of being back, was so fulfilling that they didn’t spend much time investigating other enigmas. They tried to heal and recover, tried to get back on track again after everything. All the whys and hows were put in a mental portfolio for later. Sometimes it seemed like that ’later’ would never come. Mike guessed that just like last time, they’d slowly forget about everything. He had already noticed that he had started to call Eleven by her other name Jane again, without even knowing why.

”It feels like the summer has been extra long this year,” Dustin had said one day.

Everyone agreed with that. Although they only spent a couple of days in the other dimension, they had made so many summer time memories while wandering around in the flourishing landscapes that it felt like the summer had been eternal. Maybe time was a bit distorted in the Downside Up? The thought had crossed Mike’s mind many times. Will feared time, the way it could slip away from you, the way it could change everything. It made sense to think that he would make each day last longer in his dimension.

The sun had been bright this particular day and they had spent the day loitering around in the garden, taking turns applying sunscreen on each other’s backs. Lucas was employed at the cafe downtown and he worked even on the weekends, hoping that he wouldn’t get kicked out of his apartment after all. He came over to join them later, exhausted but in good spirits.

”I swear, my boss in New York was the biggest asshole. I knew it before, but now that I have a new boss I realize just how bad it was. I don’t even mind going to work every morning because I have great coworkers and a boss who doesn’t think of me like a replaceable tool,” he said, smiling.

For a couple of hours the basement had been crowded. The D&D game was still set up on the table, the cans of soda and beer littered everywhere. It was more fun to play now that they could reference actual people and things they had seen. It wasn’t the same thing as when they were kids, but it was fun. They had officially decided that zoomer was now a real position and ’actual angel boy’ was another addition, created to the honor of Charlie Evenbrook. They had played for several hours, not even realizing how time had passed. Holly watched curiously and they made sure to teach her everything she needed to know so that she could teach her friends.

Now it was just Will and Mike left. The room was lit up dimly by a little lamp in the corner. Mike was too lazy to get up and switch it off. Now it was completely quiet in the basement except for their own breathing and the sound of their lips when they kissed. Mike wished it could last forever.

Eleven slept safely in Nancy’s old bedroom upstairs. Whatever the elves had done to her, it had worked like magic. There was not even a scar left behind. She lay the side, cuddled up on the pillow. The blanket was too hot so it was kicked off. The window was opened on ajar to let some fresh air enter the room. The letter from Charlie was placed on the desk.

”The fawn gave this to me,” Holly had said, ”but it’s addressed to you.”

Eleven had refused to let anyone else read it. She only told them that Charlie said that everything was okay, that the gnomes were not as upset anymore but everyone was worried for the future. That was obviously not the only thing Charlie had written her. Eleven had cried when she opened it. She sat in solitude on the front porch with the letter on her lap for hours afterwards. She never told anyone exactly what had happened during those weeks that she remained in the Downside Up, but the bond she had developed with Charlie persisted.

Mike supposed it was because Charlie had never known her as either Jane or Eleven. He didn’t know her as the girl from the lab, and he was completely oblivious to the fact that she was not like other young women her age. He just saw her for who she was, regardless. And in return Eleven knew him as Charlie Evenbrook and not as Will’s assistant — or even worse, as his property. Mike was guilty of this, but he had decided to work on it. Little by little he had started to see Charlie as an actual individual.

Mike wasn’t sure how, but Charlie had somehow contacted Will as well (perhaps it was the fawn again, which had apparently made interdimensional traveling a habit at this point?). Will said that everything was good between them. Charlie knew, he had known before anyone had even told him. Will told Mike that Charlie had just laughed when he explained what was going on. Mike secretly thought that it was probably because Will somewhere deep down wanted Charlie to know all along, and thus he did.

”I said that I was actually over you, but then the feelings came back, that it wasn’t his fault or anything,” Will had said afterwards. It was a couple of days ago now. ”But he just rolled his eyes. ’Over him, yeah, sure thing’, he said in that sarcastic way. He didn’t seem upset about it. If anything, I think he was a bit relieved.”

The days seemed to bleed into one another. It was hard to distinguish where one day ended and another one began. Sometimes it felt like the weeks at home had lasted an entirety, sometimes just a couple of seconds. Mike looked back, not just at the time since returning, but everything that had led up to that point, a lot lately.

Sometimes he envisioned his younger self in the mirror, and as they stood face to face he spoke to him. Apologized for certain things, scolded him for other. It was an absurd attempt to make peace with himself, he guessed, but it wasn’t with that intention in mind that he started talking to himself. He just sensed that little Mike called for him. He never told anyone about this. Nobody asked when he left the bathroom after dwelling in there for an hour at the time, cheeks streaky but smiling, feeling like a thousand pounds had been lifted from his chest. (”He’s not taking a shit, that’s for sure,” Lucas had chortled when Will brought it up)

”You’ll get together with Will one day and your friends won’t hate you for it,” he had told the reflection, ”So just hang in there, okay? I know that it’s difficult and you are afraid, but it’ll be okay.”

And here they were, in the present. Everything they had ever done had led up to this, and everything that was yet to come would derive from this.

Mike placed a kiss no top of Will’s head, thinking of how much trouble that mind of his had caused them, but oh how wonderful it was. Will still offered only short, evasive explanations when someone asked him questions. Mike had reached a point where he had just accepted that Will wasn’t going to tell him everything. Maybe he didn’t need to either? He trusted Will, despite everything. And in return Will trusted him, despite everything.

He let his hand run from the head and down along his neck and then his back. Mike himself had acne on his back, but Will’s skin was perfectly smooth. He let his fingered run along the spine. Will snuggled closer. It was almost too hot to be this close. At this time of the year the basement was almost unbearably hot, while in the winter it was too cold instead.

”Sometimes I’m still mad about that dragon,” Mike said, looking into the ceiling above.

”Seriously?” Will laughed, lifting his head off Mike’s chest. He traces with his finger along all the shapes of Mike’s face, the nose bridge, the cheekbones, his lips. Then he said, ”I’m actually not surprised.”

”Yeah?”

”That’s you in a nutshell.”

”Whiny and too proud for my own good? Can’t let things go?”

”Sometimes, yes,” Will teased. Mike pushed him away and rolled over to his side with his face turnt away from Will, pouting. He could feel Will nuzzling closer against his back, the softness of lips lips tracing his spine as he spoke, ”But that’s not what I was thinking about. I just think you have this longing inside of you to help others. You want to be a hero. That’s not a bad thing in itself. But sure, I admit, arguing with a dragon for not trying to kill you wasn’t your brightest move.”

”I was so frustrated, that’s all. All of you got to be so cool and I didn’t. That was my moment, but then it just fell flat.” Mike rolled back on his back, let Will place his cheek on his chest again. It fit so perfectly there, Mike felt a bit lost without it. The pressure was comforting. He sighed, ”I just wanted to have that one moment to remember forever, something I could think about when… heck, I don’t know. Never mind.”

One major reason why Mike eventually gave up on eliciting information out of Will, was because Will had also started to ask him a bunch of sensitive questions and it made him realize how uncomfortable it could be to say it out loud, to share your mind with another person — even if you loved him. Saying it out loud made Mike see how stupid his own thoughts were. He was ashamed of them, didn’t want anybody to know they even existed. Will seemed to feel the same way about his own. Perhaps everyone did? Perhaps everyone had thoughts and feelings that they wished they could detach themselves from? Insecurities? Regrets?

”You were cool, Mike,” Will said, ”I actually think it was really cool that you choose to not kill the dragon although you could have. That’s noble. And you said that you needed time to think it through instead of spitting out an answer right away, in the heat of the moment. That takes some self-control, which is really impressive.”

”But still. The dragon almost killed Eleven and it attacked all of us. Dustin could have died too, he barely got away. Maybe sparing the dragon’s life wasn’t the right thing to do after all?” Mike reasoned. He still remembered the fierceness of the dragon’s eyes. Those were not friendly. The dragon didn’t intend to have mercy on them from the start, it definitely didn’t. Mike still didn’t understand what made it change its mind and why it did it so suddenly.

”We made it out, isn’t that enough?”

”Yes, I suppose.” Mike rolled over to the side, facing Will. He brushed some hair out of Will’s face and remained silent for a moment, thinking. Then he said, ”I never became a paladin. I feel like I failed my younger self. I had the chance to become one, but I didn’t. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

This could still make him woeful, that sort of overwhelming sorrow that nothing could really heal, not even time. He knew that he would regret this forever. He could see himself as a middle aged man, sitting in an armchair with a glass of whiskey in his hand, living a good life but in the shadow of remorse and a feeling of incompleteness — a vision which he associated with his own father.

If Nancy was slowly becoming their mother, what was there that could prevent Mike from slowly becoming their father? Rationally Mike knew that they were very different, but he feared that they were not quite as different as he had always thought. Ted Wheeler wasn’t born as a calloused, uninspired man. He was once youthful and full of aspirations, but he never became a professional hockey player like he dreamed of, and perhaps that was the start of his downfall. What if Mike’s slip downhill had already begun? What if the peak of his life was already in the past?

”Mike, you’re talking like that was your last chance…” Will reached out to hold his hand, comforting. Mike held it, but the murky feeling in his chest remained.

”I won’t get another chance to battle dragons any time soon, will I?” he said, ”I just wish I had the chance to get a proper closure to this. Perhaps I should write to that dragon, send it away with the deer, and ask her what exactly she meant by everything? She totally implied that Jane still has powers. I don’t understand anything and I hate it.”

”You’ll get your closure eventually.”

”How? It’s over.”

”Don’t you get it?” Will lifted himself up on the elbow. He looked at Mike with great amusement. Even in this dim light his eyes appeared to glitter. Mike loved the way like looked behind his messy bangs. Will bopped him on the tip of his nose with his finger.

”What?” Mike said, frumpy, ”What is it that I don’t get?”

”Mike!” Will groaned, laughing. Mike truly didn’t understand, he felt like an idiot. Will leaned in to kiss him, just a quick peck. ”Don’t you see? This is not the end of the story — This is where it starts!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so, so much for reading! We'll see what happens next. I haven't written a sequel, maybe I won't, maybe I will, but I'll hopefully be back with something soon. Until then, take care!


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